Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 18: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason she failed to conduct an analysis of the poverty and distributive impacts of the budget measures; if she will revise or reverse some of the cuts should the poverty impact assessment demonstrate a rise in poverty and inequality once she publishes same. [4346/12]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 33: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she undertook a fuel poverty impact assessment of the consequences of her decision to cut fuel allowance by €120 per annum; and if she will reverse this cut in view of the rise in fuel costs. [4352/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 33 together.

It is a requirement under the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion that Government Departments, local authorities and state agencies assess policies and programmes at design, implementation and review stages for their likely impact on poverty and on inequalities likely to lead to poverty, with a view to poverty reduction.

As part of the deliberative process for Budget 2012, my Department analysed, in so far as possible, the distributive and poverty impact of possible welfare changes, including the changes to the Fuel Allowance, prior to the finalisation of the Budget. Due to the requirements of the budgetary process, it is not possible to publish this material in advance of the Budget and the associated Dáil votes.

Deputies will appreciate that it gives me no satisfaction to cut Fuel Allowance or any other payment. However, given the scale of the fiscal crisis and because spending on social protection accounts for nearly 40% of current Government expenditure, savings have to be found in the social welfare system. In the welfare package presented in Budget 2012, I sought to minimise the impact of the necessary adjustments in my Department's welfare expenditure on groups vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion. The Government has endeavoured insofar as it could to limit cuts in social welfare to households where there is some additional income over and above the basic social welfare payment and in that regard, avoided any general reduction in primary weekly welfare payments.

My Department has prepared an analysis of the distributive and poverty impacts on families of the Budget 2012 tax and welfare package, in conjunction with the Department of Finance. This analysis is currently being finalised and will shortly be considered by the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy. I will arrange for the analysis to be published on the Department's website in March 2012, in line with the arrangements I put in place last year.