Last night and again this morning we had a great deal of noise over an issue which many people would not consider to be the most important issue today. The noise and confusion in this House did not hit the headlines, but today's headlines must concern the Minister. As I said yesterday, the Minister for Social Welfare is a failure. He has failed, as his predecessor failed, to bring the Department up to 1981 standards. He has failed to provide for the aged, the infirm and those dependent on the social welfare cheques they are supposed to receive. Today people on social welfare are worse off than they were six or 12 months ago and are very much worse off than they ere four years ago.
I do not know if the Minister took the advice I gave him yesterday to compare the prices on the everyday shopping lists of the old age pensioners, widows and many others with the average increases granted by this Government over the past four budgets. If he does that he will find that many of these people are living well below the bread line and are far worse off in real terms than they were four years ago. If he made those calculations last night, he will have to do them again today because, as is reported in the press, we have had a mini-budget. Petrol has been increased by 12p per gallon. It can be said that the price of petrol does not affect the old age pensioner, the widow or the unemployed. Of course, if does. It affects everybody.
A Deputy on the Government side referred yesterday to Opposition complaints regarding the budget and made some comparison with the budget introduced this week in Britain. Let him make that comparison today. Our budget increase in the price of petrol was not the end of the story. Today's newspapers report another mini-budget, following the mini-budget introduced a week before the actual budget which massively increased the price of coal and bread. Those on social welfare benefits have not yet been compensated for these increases.
Some minutes ago I was highly amused that the loud laughter from the Government benches regarding remarks on the neutrality issue came from the Minister for Social Welfare. One would think he was doing the job he was appointed to do and that he was happy in his position. I call on the Taoiseach to consider even at this late stage the appointment of a Minister for Social Welfare holding that portfolio only. The Taoiseach himself formerly held the posts of Minister for Social Welfare and Minister for Health and there were appeals from this side of the House, and even some words from the Government side, that a Minister be appointed to the Department of Social Welfare alone.
It is now over a year since junior Ministers were appointed who have very little to do. We seldom, if ever, hear from them. The Taoiseach almost appointed Ministers for dog licences. The Department of Social Welfare look after the less well-off in our society and those who cannot provide for themselves and who are not highly organised. Nobody would dream of putting the Department of Agriculture with another Department because there would be protest marches in every town and village. Because the Department of Social Welfare deal with old age pensioners, widows and the unemployed who have not a loud voice, the Taoiseach has chosen to treat them in a manner which is not fitting. I am sure he could find another person in his party willing to take on the responsibility of cleaning up the Department of Social Welfare and ensuring that those entitled to benefits received them on time.
Many of those who have been waiting for weeks to receive their benefits will wonder what is going on in this House when they hear reports in the media of the happenings of last night and this morning. What course is the country taking? I hope the Minister will have something new to tell us when replying to this debate so that we can give some reassurance to those of our constituents who are social welfare recipients. Such people form the major part of the queue coming to see politicians and I am sure the Minister and his colleagues have similar experience.
If the Minister gives us some reassurance, can we depend on it? It is not long since he told us that the difficulties in his Department had been straightened out. He had admitted that there were mistakes in the Department and he used the postal strike as an excuse for the nondelivery of cheques. He made use of that excuse for longer than was popular. Then he admitted that there were delays because of a change in reference numbers and the introduction of computerisation. These were supposed to have been straightened out. The junior Minister issued a statement, I forget the date of it, saying that this had been done and that we could expect a free run as far as payment of benefits was concerned. That has not happened and I should like him to explain why he gave the impression that he had straightened out the Department. Public representatives receive more complaints about non-payment of social welfare cheques than ever before and this without a Cork by-election or postal strike. I wonder what the Minister's excuse will be now.
The free fuel scheme allowance has been increased to £3 but it is totally inadequate. We were very lucky that we had such a mild winter. This helped to keep heating costs down and contributed to the conservation of energy. The mild winter is what saved many people from freezing in their homes and not the Minister's miserable allowance of £3. A few years ago recipients of a fuel voucher were far better off when it was for 1 cwt. of turf. However, by the looks of things they are better off today than they will be in October unless the Minister increases the fuel voucher today.
Most of those entitled to the allowance, even those in the Minister's own constituency, use bottled gas and they are faced this morning with an increase of 76p in the price of a cylinder of gas. We no longer have increases of 1p, 2p, 3p or 6p on commodities but are rapidly approaching the stage where we have £1 increases. Can the Minister imagine the inroads that the increase on a cylinder of gas will make on his fuel allowance which was totally inadequate before this? I appeal to the Minister—in case the Taoiseach takes up the appeal I made to him to appoint a Minister for Social Welfare without any other strings attached—to have another look at the free fuel scheme and sort it out before he moves from that Department. The Taoiseach did not pay a great deal of attention to the Department of Social Welfare when he was Minister, so perhaps it would be too much to expect him to appoint a Minister for Social Welfare. There are many Members, both on this side and on the Minister's side of the House, who feel this Department is deserving of a Minister's full attention.