Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Senators McFadden and Buttimer raised certain issues concerning the disincentive to work. It is very important that we ensure we keep an incentive to work. The value of family income supplement is that the low income earner can bridge the gap between social welfare and low paid employment. We have, therefore, protected it. We have also protected child benefit for those on family non-income supplement. Had we just done it for the social welfare recipient, it would have created a real poverty trap; therefore, there is built-in protection for such persons.

To take the current figures for, say, a working man who has a wife who is not working outside the home and two children, if he is on the minimum wage and working a 38 hour week, he receives approximately €328.70, whereas if he was unemployed, he would receive €391. Therefore, it is built-in that one can receive more on social welfare than if one is on the minimum wage. However, the man on the minimum wage can receive family income supplement to top up his income. We always try to ensure one is never better off on social welfare. A person could look at these rates and point out that the figures do not include rent supplement, the benefit of a medical card and any of the additional payments a person might receive. Because income rates have fallen substantially for everybody in the past year, these are some of the considerations we have had to take into account.

With regard to the lone parent, while she is taking a cut, she is not taking a cut in child benefit because she will get it back through the qualified child allowance. That is important for somebody like her.

There has been an increase in the number of farmers looking for farm assist scheme payments but that is why it is in place. I met the IFA and spoke to the ICMSA. Obviously, they are very anxious that farmers do not feel they are becoming dependent on social welfare because it is a cultural step for persons who have always worked on the land and do not want to be on social welfare. In the budget the Government introduced a new environmental scheme for farmers which is designed to keep them on the land, recognising the difficulties they have had in recent months. The farm assist scheme has literally been designed to do this - to assist farmers in the work they are doing, recognising that their incomes have fallen. We are seeing an increase but hope more farmers will realise the scheme is available to them. It is not about dependency but about supporting them to continue to do the work they are doing on the farm.