Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I am fully aware that the expenditure changes in the budget will affect the living standards of many citizens in the short term. No one likes making these cuts but no one could have envisioned we would have to produce a budget like this because of the problems in the economy in recent years. If we put off these changes, there will be a greater burden in future on those who can least bear it, including people with disabilities, families with children, the unemployed, carers and pensioners. The Government, in the context of a really tough budgetary environment, has done its utmost to protect the most vulnerable people in society and the improvements of the past decade in these areas as far as was possible.

These savings for 2011 will be achieved by greatly enhanced control measures, as mentioned by the Minister; proactive labour activation initiatives, including the introduction of a brand new community work placement programme called Tús, operated by the Department of Social Protection; structural reform measures designed to deliver more effective income and housing supports in a sustainable way; and reductions in rates of payment.

I want to outline the supports being fully maintained at current levels to provide reassurance for those who had been concerned that their payments might be cut. Similar to last year we have been able to maintain at current levels pensions and other payments made to people aged over 66 years. These include payments for pensioners' dependent spouses aged under 66 years. This means that approximately 490,000 people aged 66 years and over are being fully protected in the budget. Extra allowances paid to pensioners who live alone and those aged over 80 years will continue at current rates.

The Minister for Social Protection has preserved welfare supports for pensioners generally as all pensioners are entitled to a minimum level of guaranteed support by the State. For many pensioners, social welfare pensions, be they contributory or non-contributory, are their only source of income and most of them do not have an ability to earn. Pensioners who can afford to pay towards economic recovery will contribute through changes in the taxation system which were announced last week by my colleague, the Minister for Finance.

A number of valuable other payments have also been maintained. These benefit not only pensioners but also people with disabilities, carers and all those on low incomes, regardless of age. They include the household benefits package, which includes the free television licence, electricity-gas allowance and telephone allowance, as well as the fuel allowance and the free travel scheme.

The half rate carer's allowance scheme and the extra payment for caring for more than one person are retained, as is the respite care grant at its current value of €1,700 per annum. The half rate illness benefit and jobseeker's benefit payments for widows or lone parents will also remain. The current payment arrangements for lone parents and people with a disability who participate in community employment schemes are being retained without change. The family income supplement scheme which benefits lower income families with children is also unchanged.

Bearing in mind the recent bad weather, the Minister is also providing for a special once-off additional two weeks fuel allowance payment worth €40. This will be made to most recipients in the next two weeks, with the remainder receiving the payment in early January.

Unfortunately, as Senators are well aware, in this budget it will be necessary to introduce a rate reduction in working age payments from January 2011 to produce the necessary savings required in 2011. Whereas there have been some increases in inflation in recent months, consumer prices are back at April 2007 levels and we have managed to maintain the payment rates for all aged 25 to 66 in 2011 at rates higher than those paid in that year. No reduction is being made to the qualified child rate which will remain at current levels. In addition, the reduced rate of €100 per week for jobseeker's allowance recipients aged under 21 is also unchanged. Accordingly, the weekly rates of payment to those aged under 66 are being reduced by €8 per week or an average of 4.1%. Increases for qualified adults on working age schemes are being reduced proportionately. This will bring the personal rates of jobseeker's payments, one parent family payment, illness benefit and associated schemes in 2011 to €188 per week or €2.20 per week in excess of the rate which applied in 2007.

Even taking into account the reductions that were applied in 2010 and 2011, this Government has delivered unprecedented increases in welfare rates since 2004. Over that period, jobseeker's payments, disability allowance and one-parent family payments have increased by 39.5% while the cost of living has increased by 11.8%. The Government appreciates that reductions in rates will be difficult for people but we also know that if action is not taken now, we risk putting social welfare payments at greater risk in future.

Much has been said and written on the reductions in the blind pension, invalidity pension, disability allowance and widows' and widowers' pensions as well as carers' payments. In this context I must point out that to exempt all these recipients from the rate reduction would have meant exempting approximately a further 260,000 people. The effect of this to achieve the same savings would be to have required a cut of €11 per week in a jobseeker's personal payments and €18.30 per week for a couple. It must be remembered that people on disability allowance are also entitled to the full household benefits package, free travel pass and companion free travel pass where appropriate. These are worth approximately €20 per week. Disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension are paid to more than 150,000 people.

On supports for children, between 2000 and 2010 the monthly rates of payment for child benefit increased from just €53.96 for the first child and €71.11 for the third and subsequent children to €150 and €187 respectively. In the same period, overall expenditure on child benefit grew from just €638 million to approximately €2.2 billion per year. As a result, approximately 10.6% of gross social welfare spending in 2010 went on child benefit. This Government is proud to have been able to deliver such significant increases in payments to families when the resources were available. In the current economic environment, however, we simply cannot afford to keep spending at the same level as we did when our tax revenue was much higher. In that context, we have decided to reduce overall spending on child benefit. In considering the various options for making savings in this area we were conscious that the payment could be an important source of income for all families for different reasons. Accordingly, the Government has decided against withdrawing child benefit completely from any family.

From January the lower rate of child benefit paid in respect of the first and second child will be reduced by €10 to €140 per child per month. The payment for the third child is being reduced by €20 to €167 per month, while the payment for the fourth child and subsequent children is being reduced by €10 to €177 per month. While I appreciate that cuts to child benefit will be difficult for some families, it should be recognised that the payment will still be very generous compared with payments in other countries and that the Government is making a substantial contribution towards child care provision, including the continuation of a free preschool year. The qualified child increase payable with welfare payments is fully maintained. The domiciliary care allowance paid to parents and guardians of certain children under 16 years who are ill or have a disability is also unaffected, while family income supplement and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance are unchanged.

Some questions were raised about multiple births. I confirm that additional benefit and grants for multiple births will continue to be paid. The rate of child benefit payable in respect of triplets remains at twice the normal levels. The level of child benefit support in 2011 for a family with triplets will be €894 per month or €10,728 per annum. The special grants payable at birth and at ages four and 12 years are unchanged at €635 per child.

Many Senators referred to efforts to control social welfare fraud. Welfare fraud is theft. It is a serious crime and the Department of Social Protection is doing everything it can to crack down on those who abuse the system. More than 600 staff are working in areas related to control of fraud and abuse of the welfare system. Between January and the end of October this year more than 585,000 individual claims were reviewed. When high risks are identified, targeted control measures are taken to reduce the risk of fraud and abuse of the system. For example, certification has been introduced for child benefit claims from non-Irish nationals and other customer segments in schemes where a high risk has been identified.