Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about difficult choices. As I said yesterday, this measure will result in departmental savings in expenditure of approximately €22 million but there will also be further savings because there was an additional scheme, a small scheme, which required a certain amount of administration. Therefore, there will be administrative savings and staff savings, which we are obliged to find in terms of the troika regime. As Senator Moloney said, the bereavement grant is based on insurance contributions. Therefore, it has never been targeted at those who are most in need. For instance, people who are on a lifelong disability payment, unless they are otherwise insured, would not get the payment nor would most farmers unless they were self-employed people or were an employee of a farm company and were paying contributions. The majority of small farmers, the type of people the Department assists through farm assist, would be unlikely to qualify for the payment.

For those people who have particular difficulties, the exceptional needs payment is available. As has been said, the payments under that heading range from €1,000 upwards. The annual expenditure by the Department under that heading is more than €5 million. Therefore, it is a significant payment to quite a number of people who can be in the most difficulty at the time of a family bereavement.

The biggest supports we give are to widows, widowers and survivors whose spouses or partners have died, that is, the contributory survivor's and non-contributory survivor's pension, which is paid at a relatively generous rate. That availability of the survivor's pension is the biggest single support.

The second significant payment is that if the person who has died was in receipt of a social welfare payment, their spouse, widow, widower or surviving partner continues to receive the social welfare payment of the individual for a further six weeks. On average, that is worth about €1,200, which again is much more significant that the €850 payment, and if, for instance, the person was a pensioner and had a half rate carer's allowance, the payment would be approximately €2,100. Those are significant commitments to the immediate surviving next of kin, which is where, as with the widow's and widowers' pension, the money ought to go because they are the immediate survivors, rather than it going to the distant relatives. In addition, where a widow, widower or surviving partner has a child under the age of 18 or a child under the age of 22 who is continuing in full-time education, there is a cash payment of €6,000. Again, that is much more significant than the payment that is being brought to an end here. I want to stress to Senators that this payment is to the immediate relatives and dependants of the person who has died.

I repeat that the context in which this is being done is one in which I have had to find savings, frankly. It must have been pleasant for previous Ministers in this Department who had substantial budget largesse to distribute. We are trying to get the economy back on its feet and get people back to work. We are maintaining a supportive social welfare system. We are trying to target the benefits. I put it to the Senators that we have tried to do that in the best way possible, by maintaining a very significant payment to an immediate relative - the widow or widower - of the person who has died and his or her dependent children, if there are any. I think, in policy terms, that is where the money should be spent.