Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she expects to be in a position to meet the budgetary requirements of her Department without the imposition of extra curtailments in respect of payments to social welfare recipients such as job seekers, old age pensioners and those in receipt of child or adult dependent allowances and/or disability related payments; if she has identified the extent to which she can comply with the Troika requirements entered into by her predecessor in the coming year and thereafter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18932/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Thee Estimates for the Department of Social Protection as published in the 2013 Revised Estimates (REV) provides for expenditure of €20.243 billion on schemes, services and administration in 2013. Thee Estimates are based, in the main, on an analysis of trends as regards likely numbers of recipients and average value of payments in 2013. Actual trends on individual schemes are being closely monitored on an on-going basis. Decisions about the adequacy of resources available to the Department will be taken in the overall budgetary context.

As the Deputy will be aware Ireland is in the final year of the EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support. The references to financial targets in the agreement relate to the overall fiscal consolidation, not to Departmental or sectoral budgets. The Troika recognise the scale of this spending on social protection and have emphasised the importance of reform in this area both as a contribution to fiscal consolidation and to facilitate economic recovery. They have not however identified any specific programmes that should be curtailed or discontinued in their view, nor have they specified any savings or expenditure targets in the social protection area. Although the Troika may identify areas of expenditure which they believe merit examination, any changes to the schemes operated by the Department are decided by Cabinet, subject to the approval of the Oireachtas, in the context of the on-going review of expenditure generally and in the context of deciding the fiscal consolidation measures to be included in Budget 2014.

In relation to Budget 2014, the Deputy will be aware that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's Expenditure Report 2013 published by Government last December provides for additional new expenditure reduction measures of €440 million to be achieved in 2014 in the Department of Social Protection budget. Reducing overall expenditure in 2014 in line with this target will be very challenging. No decisions have been made at this stage as to how these targets will be met.