Seanad debates

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage

 

3:55 pm

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As my former, deceased colleague would have enunciated, cuts had to be made. I accept that cuts have to be made by this Government. My fundamental difficulty with what the Government is doing is that the Minister is saying it is only €30 million and so is a modest cut, but it has a disproportionate impact on certain sectors of society. There is not a whole lot to say, other than to point out that the ESRI and other such bodies acknowledged this as well. Instead of trying to spread it out as much as possible, there is a targeting that is going on.

Maternity benefit is increasing because of a baby boom. It is increasing because more people are paying into social insurance. This is not social security or social welfare; this is largely a social insurance scheme. People who are working have paid in to receive it. That is why there is more maternity benefit being paid out. It is not because the State has become more generous, but because more people have fulfilled the conditions required, which is to say that there has been a baby boom in this country. That is not a point of credit. The Minister is claiming credit for somehow not touching child benefit. She has broken her promise twice since the last election, when she had the figures that my former colleague, my deceased colleague Brian Lenihan would have given to her. His banking strategy has been continued by this Government. It has been enhanced and developed, but it has continued and there has not been a change to it.

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