Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I shall first respond to Senator Norris. I have great sympathy with his point about not being able to make amendments to money Bills. For his information, the money Bill provisions are set out in the Constitution. He made an excellent point and it should be considered for both Houses. I would support his suggestion if it went to the Constitutional Convention or for further debate in both Houses. He made an excellent point and I agree that there is an argument for change in regard to this matter. I thank him again for pointing that out in the way that he has done so.

In regard to Senator Byrne's comments, there are different reports and different elements. One can also point to the ESRI report which states that income inequality has changed. One can look at the ESRI's recent report and its remarks on the last budget. The reports do not take into consideration the money spent on benefits, the €2.3 billion that has been invested in social housing or the additional money that is being spent on the homeless sector but it is "Yes" when it is done.

In terms of an analysis of the budget, the Department is preparing a social impact statement on the main welfare tax and other measures in the 2015 budget. It will be finalised when the switch model is updated by the ESRI to take into account the measures relating to water affordability. It is intended to publish the analysis as soon as it is feasible or when available. That model will be published. I hope my response answer's the Senator's query.

I wish to point out that the Department of Social Protection conducts a pre-budget submission forum. One of the key areas of the pre-budget forum, comprised of different voluntary groups, was that we should in some way acknowledge the living alone allowance. That was done and it is the first time the allowance has been increased since 1996.

Child benefit elements were also highlighted. While only €5 has been recouped from the original €10 cut I still think the measure is welcome. As somebody said in the Seanad when I appeared here last, a €5 reduction would have been considered to be massive but when it is a €5 increase it is considered to be only crumbs. The measure is a step in the right direction which I hope will be acknowledged.

It is very important that older people are acknowledged and, therefore, the 25% Christmas bonus is welcome. It was unfortunate that the Christmas bonus was abolished in 2009 in its entirety so a reintroduction of 25% is welcome.

There has also been a post-budget forum comprised of the same groups which acknowledged that the key points were, in some way, taken on board. There has been that level of consultation and there has been a review in the process.

In many ways, I find it difficult to take some of the remarks made by Fianna Fáil. I am not going to get into this party thing of "You done this and we done that" because the list we could read out of what happened in the early periods would be a multiple of any list of our failings.