Deputy George Colley gave me notice of his intention to raise on the adjournment the increases in social welfare payments in comparison with increases in the cost of living since 1973. In accordance with Standing Orders the Dáil must adjourn not later than 9 p.m. By agreement, Deputy Colley may speak for two-thirds of the remaining time and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare will then reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Social Welfare Payments.
Today at Question Time the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare, referring to the situation since the Coalition came into office, said, among other things, that the increase in the cost of living which was disclosed in this House by a parliamentary question to the Taoiseach showed an increase of 75 per cent over three-and-a-half years and that the lowest increase in social welfare payments during that period was 105 per cent. This is repetition of a matter about which we have heard a great deal from the Coalition in general and the Parliamentary Secretary in particular. The clear implication was that there has been a real increase in social welfare payments of not less than 30 per cent.
In order to arrive at the conclusion that there has been an enormous increase in real value in social welfare payments under the Coalition, certain basic assumptions are necessary. First, it is necessary to compare two things which are not alike, a well-known way of arriving at the wrong result. The two things to be compared are a base for the cost of living index in mid-February, 1973, with a different base for social welfare increases, different because whatever commencement date you take for social welfare payments it cannot be mid-February 1973. If you take the previous increases in social welfare you go back to August and October of 1972. If you take the subsequent ones you go to July, 1973. Whichever way you look at it, mid-February 1973 has no relevance to the commencement date for calculation of the value of increases in social welfare payments.
In order to arrive at the Parliamentary Secretary's conclusion that Fianna Fáil, if returned to office, would not have increased social welfare payments in the budget of 1973, it is also necessary to assume that the present social welfare recipients will not have to suffer any increase in the cost of living subsequent to mid-August, 1976. Such assumptions, clearly without foundation, produce a perversion of the truth. This perversion of the truth is what we have been getting regularly from the Coalition in general and from the Parliamentary Secretary in particular. The present social welfare figures for payments under various headings to the recipients must be viewed in light of the fact that they will remain in force at least up to 1st April, 1977. I say that on the basis of the precedent of previous budgets under this Government. I could, of course, refer to the precedent created by the Parliamentary Secretary when he promised on behalf of the Government a review of all the social welfare payments and their increase in line with any increase in the cost of living as at 1st November, something which did not happen in respect of all the social welfare payments. I am not relying on that. I am simply going on the basis of what has been done in the past and on the assumption that a budget introduced some time in January, as in recent years, would contain increases in social welfare dating from 1st April next. It must also be taken into account that inflation will continue up to 1st April, 1977.
The Parliamentary Secretary has chosen mid-February, 1973, as a base. I say he has chosen it because today and on previous occasions he referred to a parliamentary question answered on behalf of the Taoiseach in which the base of mid-February, 1973, was taken and it was shown that £1 at mid-February, 1973, would purchase the same amount of goods as £1.75 would purchase in mid-August, 1976. If we take that base, and if we are generous to the Coalition, we can project the inflation rate during the remaining seven months, that is, from mid-August, to 1st April. If we project it at the average rate of inflation since the Government came into office, we can arrive at certain conclusions as to what social welfare recipients are likely to have to endure until the next increase. I should point out that in calculating future inflation on that basis I am giving the benefit to the Coalition of the lower rate of inflation in their early months in office and also the benefit of the one-off effect of the subsidies and reductions in VAT which had a dramatic effect on the cost of living. Given the benefit of those things, one can take the rate of inflation over the whole period of the Coalition and project it for the outstanding seven months. This gives a value of £1 as at mid-February, 1973, as £2.05 at 1st April, 1977.
The following examples will illustrate what has happened. The rate which was payable in respect of the items I am about to mention was payable at mid-February, 1973, the base date chosen by the Parliamentary Secretary. The equivalent rate is calculated in order to keep pace with those figures and the actual rate now being paid and which will continue to be paid up to 1st April next. The mid-February, 1973, unemployment benefit was £5.55. The equivalent rate is £11.38 and the actual rate is £10.90. Unemployment assistance in mid-February, 1973 was £4.35, the equivalent rate £8.92, the actual rate £8.90. Blind persons' pension, £5.15 is the mid-February, 1973 rate, £10.56 is the equivalent rate and £10.25 is the actual rate. Injury benefit, £8.10 is the mid-February, 1973 rate, £16.61 is the equivalent rate and £15.20 is the present actual payment rate. Maternity allowance, £5.55 is the mid-February; 1973 rate, £11.38 is the equivalent rate and £10.90 is the actual rate. If the Parliamentary Secretary thinks there is anything wrong in approaching it in that way, he could approach it on the basis of fixed dates and he could take a four year period of Fianna Fáil administration, mid-May, 1968 to mid-May, 1972, and mid-May, 1972 to mid-May, 1976.
There are objections to doing this but if the Parliamentary Secretary objects to the method I have proposed, he could do that and in that case the Parliamentary Secretary will find that under Fianna Fáil the real increase after inflation in unemployment benefit was 26 per cent and under the Coalition Government 9 per cent, after inflation, in unemployment assistance 26 per cent under Fianna Fáil, 14 per cent under the Coalition; widows' contributory pension 22 per cent under Fianna Fáil, 12 per cent under the Coalition; widows' non-contributory pension 19 per cent under Fianna Fáil and 11 per cent under the Coalition, old age contributory pension 26 per cent under Fianna Fáil and 11 per cent under the Coalition and in the case of non-contributory old age pension 19 per cent under Fianna Fáil and 9 per cent under the Coalition. These are real increases after inflation for the periods I have outlined. It is important to remember that the effect of price increases on social welfare recipients is much greater than on the average person affected by the cost of living. In the light of these facts where is this enormous increase in the real value of social welfare about which we have been hearing incessantly from the Coalition and the Parliamentary Secretary? The facts are plain and only by making the deliberately wrong assumptions I have outlined at the beginning can one arrive at anything like the conclusion of the Parliamentary Secretary. If the Parliamentary Secretary wants to take a fixed date to start with the cost of living, he must allow for that when he is calculating the amounts payable under social welfare. Could we please have a little reality in these matters?
I have seldom heard a more blatant and, indeed, pathetic attempt at misrepresentation than that I have just heard. In the five minutes allowed me I will present the facts in relation to social welfare not on a selective basis as Deputy Colley has sought to do but on a factual basis and in its entirety. Deputy Colley objects to the date mid-February, 1973. I did not pick that date. Deputy Colley and his colleague Deputy Lynch were foolish enough to pick that time to have the general election which made us responsible for social welfare. That is the appropriate time to start because that is when we took office and it will be a record from when we took office up to now. The consumer price index when we took up office in 1973 was 144.7, and in mid-August, 1976, was 254.4, an increase of 76 per cent. In relation to the social welfare increases I will give three figures, the amount that Fianna Fáil were paying, the amount we are currently paying and a percentage increase over and above the cost of living.
Personal and adult dependant rates —old age contributory retirement pension at age 65, £6.20 under Fianna Fáil, £12.75 at present, real increase 17.2 per cent. Persons with adult dependants below pensionable age, under Fianna Fáil £10.35, present rate £20.85, real increase 14.3 per cent. Persons with adult dependants of pensionable age and over, £10.35 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £22.35, real increase 22.9 per cent. Old age contributory pension, personal rate for those aged 80 and over £6.70 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £13.50, real increase 14.3 per cent. Persons with adult dependants below pensionable age £10.85 under Fianna Fáil, £21.60 present rate, real increase 13.2 per cent. Person with adult dependant above pensionable age £10.85 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £23.10, real increase 21.2 per cent. Widows contributory pension under 80 years under Fianna Fáil £5.60, present rate £11.55, real increase 17.2 per cent. Widows contributory pension 80 years and over under Fianna Fáil £6.10, present rate £12.45 real increase 16.0 per cent.
Disability and unemployment benefit —personal rate under Fianna Fáil £5.55, present rate £10.90, real increase 11.5 per cent. Person with adult dependant under Fianna Fáil £9.30, present rate £18, real increase 10.4 per cent. Person with adult dependant and two children under Fianna Fáil £12, present rate £24.20, real increase 14.9 per cent. Invalidity pension—personal rate under Fianna Fáil £5.55, present rate £11.45, real increase 17.2 per cent. Person with adult dependant under Fianna Fáil £9.30, present rate £18.90, real increase 15.5 per cent. Maternity allowance under Fianna Fáil £5.55, present rate £10.90, real increase 11.5 per cent. Orphans contributory allowance under Fianna Fáil £3.80, present rate £8.40, real increase 25.7 per cent. Increases for child dependants; widows' contributory pension, deserted wife's benefit, each child under Fianna Fáil £1.50, present rate £3.90, real increase 47.9 per cent. Retirement, old age contributory pension and invalidity pension, each of first two children under Fianna Fáil £1.35, present rate £3.25, real increase 37.1 per cent. Each subsequent child £1 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £2.75, real increase 56.4 per cent.
Disability and unemployment benefit—each of first two children under Fianna Fáil £1.35, present rate £3.10, real increase 30.8 per cent; each subsequent child under Fianna Fáil £1, present rate £2.60, real increase 47.9 per cent. Social assistance, personal and adult dependent rates; old age non-contributory pension, blind pension, up to age 80 under Fianna Fáil £5.15, present rate £10.75, real increase 18.8 per cent, aged 80 and over £5.65 under Fianna Fáil, £11.60 at present, real increase 16.6 per cent. Widows' non-contributory pension, deserted wife's allowance, unmarried mothers allowance and prisoner's wife's allowance £5.15 under Fianna Fáil, £10.75 at present, 18.8 per cent real increase. Unemployment assistance—urban, personal rate £4.35 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £8.90, real increase 16 per cent, person with adult dependent £7.75 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £15.35, real increase 12.6 per cent. Person with adult dependant and two children £10.05 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £20.85, real increase 17.7 per cent.
Unemployment assistance—rural personal rate, £4.05 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £8.55, real increase 20 per cent. Person with adult dependant £7.35 under Fianna Fáil, present rate £14.90, real increase 15.5 per cent. Person with adult dependent and two children, £9.65 under Fianna Fáil, £20.40 at present, real increase 20 per cent.
The time seems to be exhausted.
Without being selective I have gone through the entire list and it totally disproves the pathetic attempt to discredit the Government.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.00 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday 18th November, 1976.