Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Senator mentioned that to me and it merits consideration. Sometimes the objectives in the budget are like the loaves and fishes, where I try to do all these good things, and I am grateful for people's support, on a limited budget.

There was a question about caps on social welfare payments. In the context of the structure of the Irish system, that would be difficult. At the moment there might be a family with payments for themselves and their children, some of those payments as carers, some as payments for disability, some as payments from the HSE. In countries like Austria, people have an account so we can see the flows of support. Some of those supports, however, are not counted by the Department, such as education, in the same way as other countries. This should be considered but it would be difficult in the current situation.

We are, however, constantly writing to recipients of child benefit to check they are still in the State and at the address that was given when the claim was made. A case was widely publicised last week of the actor who was stealing to support his children. From what I read, he had moved and had received at least two letters from the Department asking him to respond to demonstrate he was still entitled to child benefit. Unfortunately he did not respond. Had he known, he could have gone that morning to his nearest social welfare office, his payment would have been restored and he would not have found himself in such a difficult position.

It is important to say the staff in social welfare offices - there has been a lot of criticism of the staff - are very considerate and caring and try to provide the best and most professional service to people who attend in a situation where the volume of people applying for various supports has grown enormously.