Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. There is no doubt in this instance and in the current budgetary environment that she has a very difficult job. I appreciate that. It is never easy trying to strike a balance between saving money in the social welfare field and being fair.

Members of this House and of the other House raised the proposed cuts to disability allowance payments, and I commend the Minister in this regard. She was right to freeze those cuts but she should go further and say these cuts to disability allowance payments to young adults will not proceed. In every budget, things — I will not call them mistakes — get through, although not as originally proposed. We had experience of that in the previous Government. All of us would agree that any cuts to disability allowance payments for young adults cannot happen. Is it the Government's position that this cut will not go ahead? I know it is being reviewed but the Minister should give a commitment that she does not propose to cut anything from disability allowance payments.

One of the hidden things, which is part of the Social Welfare Bill, is the changes to the eligibility conditions in a number of areas, in particular for pensions and the widow's pension. The changes the Government has made, in particular the number of stamps required for one to be eligible to receive some allowances, will not really come to light until further down the road. When one is trying to walk a tight robe of saying one will not cut the headline payments in any of these areas, one will look for savings in terms of eligibility.

The Minister will know that already this year, we have seen the pace of granting payments to people slow down substantially. I am not just talking about the back to education allowance but about all allowances. All of us have received complaints from people waiting for months for decisions. Is it a conscious decision by the Department to slow up the payments or what is the position? With the eligibility changes in this budget, it will become more difficult.

I am very concerned and would like to know the rationale behind the proposed cuts to community employment schemes, in particular when we saw the figures yesterday in regard to the increase in the number of long-term unemployed. These schemes keep people at work and, in many instances, provide extremely important experience for people, in particular the long-term unemployed. To cut the training allowance per person from €1,500 to €500 is a retrograde step.

The fuel allowance has been cut by 20%, or by six weeks. At a time when, unfortunately, energy prices have risen substantially and will probably rise further, it will make it increasingly difficult for people in receipt of fuel allowances, many of whom are elderly. I welcome the fact the Government has maintained the old age pension, as did the previous Government. However, the Government needs to be very aware of the other costs, including fuel and electricity costs, the household charge and so on. All these things add up. What is the Government's view on the very substantial cut to the one-parent family allowance to reduce it to seven years?

I am trying to be constructive and I watched the debate on the Bill in the Dáil. How can we marry the social welfare system to retraining people and returning them to the workforce? The relationship has been less than perfect over the years and I would support the Minister if she tried to achieve connectivity between what people needed from their allowances and returning them to training and employment.