John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 98: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on the introduction of tapered social welfare payments for persons who are close or barely exceed means test levels. [37128/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Tapers and income disregards are a feature of the social welfare system. They are generally designed to make schemes more employment friendly by removing the disincentives associated with the loss of benefits on taking up employment. Examples of such measures for people returning to work include: one parent family payment — the first €146.50 of weekly earnings is disregarded as well as 50% of earnings from €146.51 to €293.00; unemployment assistance — 40% of net earnings from part-time work are disregarded; retention of rent-mortgage interest supplement and other secondary benefits is permitted on a tapered basis in certain circumstances; tapered withdrawal of adult and child dependant allowances as the spouse-partner's earnings from employment increase; farm assist — 30% of earnings from self-employment are disregarded; and family income supplement; 40% of net earnings are disregarded. Further improvements to existing tapers, and the introduction of new ones, are matters which fall to be considered in the context of the budget.