Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senators from all sides for their contributions to this debate and for the recognition of the improvements in the social welfare system over recent years. There is now an emphasis on those who are less well off and we are targeting children, lone parents and those who clearly are in danger of living in poverty. We use the resources of the State on behalf of the taxpayer to maximise the payments into those areas. That is what I have tried to do in the social welfare package this year, and more than 50% of the allocation on current spending from the budget went into that package.

We will get into the different elements of the Bill tomorrow and many issues raised by Senators will be dealt with specifically. I do not wish to give a short answer to Senator O'Toole, but I will try to look at the issue he raised in a more complete manner. I am not saying what the answer will be, but he will get my full attention to deal with that issue specifically.

We have looked at the child care package this year to target children in families that are in danger of being in poverty. More than €190 million is being assigned to this, with money going directly into the monthly child benefit payment and the qualified child increase of €2 for what was the child dependant allowance. The family income supplement is a very imaginative way of ensuring people who go back to work are not disadvantaged but have their payments enhanced. The children in those families will gain from this, which is an important element. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance benefits 180,000 children. We are getting to the point where the maximum number of children will benefit from that allowance. We also increased the early child care supplement to €1,100 per child per annum. There is clearly a direct correlation between what we have attempted to do in recent years, perhaps with fewer resources this year, and targeting those in need.

As long as I am in this Department, I intend to maximise these resources for those in danger of poverty rather than using universal payments to resolve everything. Some of the changes in recent years have demonstrated that where resources are used in a targeted way, the maximum benefits can be obtained by those families.

Ireland is quite generous in its contributions to child supports. Let us say there are three children in a family who are entitled to all the income supports, one of whom is under six, another between six and 12 while the third is over 12. The child payment to that family is now more than €12,000 per annum. That is a significant amount of money and I am only referring to the portion that goes to the income support per child. That equates to an income support of more than €77 per week per child, on top of entitlements the parents may have in other income supports. Twelve thousand euro to such a family is not inconsiderable and would probably rank among the best in Europe.

Let us take another example of a family with four children, one of whom is under six, two of whom are between six and 12 and the fourth is over 12. That is not uncommon, particularly in the families whom we are trying to target. The direct cash payment from the State to such a family is €15,949 per annum, which equates to around €76.68 per week per child. These are just the targeted resources relating to the children in those families. The attempt of the State on behalf of all taxpayers is not inconsiderable in its socioeconomic impact. Using these resources in a targeted way delivers directly to many of these families.

The rent supplement allowance was referred to and there was much debate on this when we discussed it in the other House. There will be similar debate tomorrow in this House on Committee, Report and Final Stages. This is a support to individuals and the payment does not go to landlords or anyone else. It is an income support to less well-off people at an individual level who need the payment.