Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to cut child benefit, the respite care grant or the duration of jobseeker's benefit. I know each such measure impacts negatively on those with genuine needs.

The vital goal of ensuring the long-term viability of the social protection system cannot be achieved without scaling back on some of the supports that have been provided heretofore. In last year's budget the Government announced that a further reduction of ¤540 million in expenditure by the Department of Social Protection would be implemented in 2013. When the previous Government left office, the national programme for recovery projected approximately ¤800 million in cuts for this year. On coming into office, this Government reduced this projection to ¤540 million and I am happy to tell Senators that after a long process of negotiation I have further reduced the figure to ¤390 million, which is a considerable reduction from the original targets.