Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

A couple of points were raised. Senator Thomas Byrne has referred to an existing benefit to which people have contributed as being limited. The problem with the social welfare system from a structural point of view is that the deficit in the social insurance fund for 2011 is approximately €1.9 billion. Even after taking these very difficult measures, next year the gap is likely to be €1.5 billion. One of the difficulties for the country is that, compared to other jurisdictions, we have very low rates of PRSI contributions. It might be argued that some of our taxes such as the universal social charge and part of income tax ought to be designated to provide for more PRSI benefits, but according to the OECD figures we are about the third lowest contributor in terms of both employee PRSI and, very importantly, employer PRSI contributions. During the boom the Government relied on a big wall of taxes — in the same way as people now talk about walls of money — from the construction industry and property development. Once this had receded, we were back to relying much more on the social insurance fund. The problem is that the deficit in the fund is very large. One can address it in a couple of ways. The first is to borrow money to meet the deficit, which clearly we are doing, this year and next year. The second is to limit some of the benefits payable. In this case, we are limiting a benefit for new entrants who apply. Third, one could seek an increase in the contribution base of the fund on a gradual basis for a number of years.

Senator Paschal Mooney raised the issue of disability. Disablement has nothing to do with disability. The UK system is different from ours because under that system and in the North, with which I am sure Sinn Féin Senators are familiar, going back a number of years, there has been a focus on every person — no matter what is his or her level of disability — being available for work and their ability to work. Next year the cuts in social welfare in the North, for instance, will amount to approximately €700 million, compared to cuts of €475 million in the Republic which has a much larger population. Some of the cuts made in the North in regard to persons with a disability will be, unfortunately, far more severe than anything that will happen in the Republic. People in the North, from all political parties, are deeply concerned about this.

To be clear, many of the people who receive disablement benefit are in full-time employment, very often in the public service. I have never heard of fraud being mentioned in that regard.