Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank all the Senators who made such thoughtful contributions on social protection. In his initial contribution Senator Mooney asked how to make work worthwhile and several other Senators referred to that also. He referred to a statistic of €38,000 per year of State benefits for a married couple with two children. The first thing to bear in mind is that these examples which crop up from time to time in the media are generally correct but they reflect a very small proportion of the people who are on job seekers' allowance. Normally what we are talking about is a couple with three or more children on rent supplement. Such a family could be in receipt of €38,000 or, perhaps, a little more if they lived in a more expensive area of Dublin where the rent supplement was higher.

A number of Senators raised the issue of rent supplement. Rent supplement is one of the key barriers against people taking up employment. I have spoken in the House previously of my preference for the local authorities - a matter to which Senator Aideen Hayden referred - to take over rent supplement as quickly as possible.