Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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61. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on State pensioners not having their the basic rates cut; if she will ask the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to reconsider their plans concerning this issue as this will have dire consequences on the pensioners who are rapidly reaching the poverty line; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1075/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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State Pensions account for the single largest block of welfare expenditure, and while expenditure on pensions is increasing because of demographic pressures, this is being successfully managed within the overall welfare budget, which continues to fall.

This year, the Department of Social Protection will spend an estimated €6.675 billion on pensions – 34.4% of all welfare expenditure and an increase of €168 million over 2014.

The overall concern of the Government in recent budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates where possible. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in protecting people from poverty.

The Government has no plans to change this policy, and I have not been presented with any plans from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to reduce the basic rate of the State pension. In fact, the Government increased payments for certain pensioners by increasing the rate of the Living Alone Allowance in Budget 2015 to €9.00.

This increases the maximum personal rate of the State non-contributory pension for a qualified person living alone to €228 per week, and the maximum rate for the contributory pension to €239.30, when both the basic pension and the allowance are taken into account.

The most recent change in the core rate of State pensions was in Budget 2009, when the State pension contributory was increased by 3.1% to €230.30, and the non-contributory pension by 3.3% to €219.00. Both of these are the maximum personal rates, and there are increases for dependant adults which attracted similar increases at that time.

Core pension rates were not reduced in the period since then, despite significant pressures on Exchequer spending, and a period of significant deflation which has protected those increases in real terms from erosion by inflation. This has had the effect of protecting older people from poverty, and all CSO figures show that those over 65 are significantly less likely to be at risk of poverty or deprivation than those aged under 65, whichever measure is used.

The recovery has also allowed us some leeway to increase spending in targeted areas, which is why I was able to restore a partial Christmas bonus last month, benefitting over 575,000 pensioners and 1.23 million welfare recipients in total.

I am aware of an options paper that was prepared by an official in the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform which considered the arguments for a reduction in a number of payment rates, including that of the State pension, and this may be the basis of the question asked by the Deputy. However, that paper stated quite clearly that the views presented in the paper were those of the author alone and do not represent the official views of that Department or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I am satisfied that this remains the case.