Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. Sadly, the Government's target of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016 has been undermined by many aspects of budget 2009. While I recognise the Minister has managed to retain her funding, I am sorry to note the requisite imagination is missing to upskill and retrain those who wish and need to return to work. Regrettably, as 7% of the workforce now is on the live register, I believe that Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have encouraged and created a welfare state in which there is no incentive to work. The Minister and I are aware that people stand to be better off financially by remaining on welfare. This point has been confirmed in a press release issued by the Combat Poverty Agency, in which it noted that for the first time in many years, there have been great savings of €841 million on welfare and tax packages. Later in the press release, the agency stated that unemployed households recorded modest gains from the budget when compared with those at work. My point is that those who automatically are in receipt of social welfare are entitled to medical cards, rent allowance, back to school clothing and footwear allowances, as well as preschool subvention, etc. However, those unfortunate people who have low paid jobs and are PAYE workers pay all the taxes and PRSI but receive no grants, subventions or anything else.

It is morally wrong that one now can be financially better off by not working. This also is wrong from the point of view of providing an example and in respect of core values as some children never have seen their parents go out to work. Consequently, the next generation will neither know nor appreciate how important it is to be able to pay one's way or be familiar with the social advantages of being able to work, having work colleagues, etc. If their parents never worked or had access to training and are demotivated, stressed and worried about their future, what sort of example does this give to the children? I congratulate the Combat Poverty Agency. On the Minister's previous appearance in the House, I appealed to her not to merge the agency with the office for social inclusion. It has a valuable role in respect of research and I believe its independent voice will be greatly missed. It is wrong that it no longer will be able to shout loudly about the Government's actions.

I wish to highlight to the Minister the plight of a 32 year old lady who has lost her job recently having worked for the past 12 years. Although she is desperate to find a job, she is unable to find one. She visited her local social welfare office and signed on only to be told she would not receive a Christmas bonus. In an e-mail she sent to me, which I am sure the Minister also received, she noted that every other benefit, including jobseeker's allowance, farm assist, back to work allowance, back to enterprise allowance, pre-retirement allowance and so on, entitles one to a Christmas bonus. Her point is that she has paid her taxes and PRSI, as have all her family before her, and has never been out of work. However, she is one of the sad and unfortunate people who will face Christmas this year without receiving such a bonus. Perhaps the Minister would try to redress this issue.

I also wish to highlight some other issues. The Government has missed the opportunity to make changes to the back to education allowance in order that people should not obliged to be in receipt of social welfare payments for 12 months before being allowed to retrain or upskill. This is a false economy and in the long term, were people allowed to retrain and return to work immediately, it would save the State much money. The Minister's speech glossed over some hidden realities in the budget. For example, since the budget, unemployed people will be obliged to make 104 paid contributions before being considered eligible for jobseeker's benefit. Moreover, from January, jobseeker's benefit for claimants who have 260 contributions or more will be limited to 12 months. It will take some time before Ireland's economy recovers, although it is to be hoped not too long. In the meantime, however, the Minister intends to cut the length of time in which people will be able to claim the benefit of their long years of PRSI contributions, which is most unfair. In addition, jobseeker's benefit for claimants who have fewer than 260 contributions will be reduced to nine months. How will such people cope? They are without jobs through no fault of their own, are demented with worry about their mortgages, car loans and credit card bills and are going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for assistance. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has never had as many people knocking on its doors. It is an insidious underlying trend. People do not realise that their benefits are being cut from 15 months to 12 months.

The Minister addressed the area of fuel poverty in her speech. She was correct in stating that every increase is welcome, and I welcome it, but €2 is a paltry sum. As I have stated previously, there are elderly people choosing between food or fuel this winter. The price of milk, flour and food stuffs have increased. Thankfully, energy costs have fallen but there are elderly people living a miserable existence. Some elderly people go to bed early at night so they will not be cold. It is wrong that the people who spent their lives working to make the State what it is cannot live the remainder of their lives in comfort. An older person must have a temperature of at least 16°C to avoid hyperthermia and in the past few nights it was -4°C. An increase of €4 will not buy even one bale of briquettes. Age Action Ireland has stated that an additional 1,500 to 2,000 people will die in Ireland this year from the cold.

Fr. Sean Healy has identified a strong correlation between fuel poverty, poor housing standards and the 2,000 winter deaths to which I referred already. He also calculated that Ireland has one of the highest winter elderly death rates due to the cold in the EU. I welcome the Minister's winter initiative scheme, but I ask that it be rolled out to more people. The pilot schemes of Sustainable Energy Ireland and others are welcome, but they are not being rolled out all over the country.

In my dealings with the Carers Association I am aware that the emotional and physical health of carers is suffering due to lack of supports and financial assistance, yet Budget 2009 has done nothing to address their plight. Every week 3.7 million hours are worked by 161,000 carers, saving the State an estimated 2.5 billion a year, but less than one in six qualify for the carers allowance. The increase for carers in Budget 2009 barely keeps pace with inflation. The meagre increase in the allowance will do nothing to help family carers cope with rising costs of running a home and caring for their infirm loved one. Carers are disappointed in the Government's failure to reform the rules governing the threshold for paid work for carers. In my opinion, this misses an opportunity where the carer could have lightened the family's financial burden and allowed the carer to engage in work outside the home while still remaining eligible for the carer's allowance.

Since the budget people unfortunate enough to have to rely on rent supplement to meet their housing needs must pay an extra €5 per week, clawing back much of the increase in basic social welfare payment. Rent supplement is a payment made to people living in private rented accommodation who cannot afford accommodation costs. There are approximately 60,000 in receipt of this payment. At this juncture, I welcome the RAS scheme. It is probably the most positive outcome for people on rent supplement.

The Minister referred to MABS. Last week I accompanied a lady to MABS. The Minister is correct, it is a good service. However, there seems to be a log-jam from the point of view of people getting to negotiate with the banks. We on this side of the House sat here all night in the Seanad and supported the Government in bailing out the banks, and now the banks and the Government need to bail out the people. There are people in danger of losing their homes because they have lost their jobs and do not have enough money to pay their mortgages. We will end up having to provide social housing and rent supplement if we do not allow them keep their homes. Sadly, I have much more to say but that is all I can say in the time available.