I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
This Bill, the second I have introduced since taking up office, gives effect to the substantial improvements in social welfare rates of payment announced in the budget. It contains a significant package of improvements for carers. It also introduces new income support measures for farmers and fishermen on low incomes and a new bereavement grant.
The Bill addresses commitments set out in the Government's An Action Programme for the Millennium aimed at building an inclusive society and fulfils key commitments in Partnership 2000. The resources provided by the Government for social welfare improvements in the recent budget and in this Bill amount to £317 million in a full year, an all-time high. However, the Bill demonstrates much more than a delivery on this Government's promises and much more than unprecedented levels of spending. This Bill demonstrates a radical shift in the way we look at social welfare.
In the past, social welfare started out from an assumption that the State should try to prevent abject poverty and should try to alleviate grinding disadvantage. The State, it was felt, should not allow people to be pushed over the edge. However, in the past that was felt to be enough. Nobody felt that social welfare could be a positive force, could register that we value older people, we value what carers contribute.
I have always believed that my Department should be a catalyst for change, should stimulate opportunity and not be resigned to limitation. The Bill I am proposing today indicates that this Government is moving towards a new definition of social welfare as responsive, flexible and, above all, designed to help individuals and groups express their true potential, make their contribution and know they are valued in a changing nation.
Take, for example, our older citizens. We need to ensure that older people are freed to live their lives to the full. One cannot do that if one is trying to get by on too little money. That is why in our action programme, we are committed to increasing the rate of contributory old age pension to £100 over a five year period. In last year's budget the Government provided a special increase of £5 per week in the maximum rates of payment. This year we are going a step further by providing for an increase of £6 per week in such payments. This means that the contributory old age pension will now amount to £89 per week, an increase of £11 or 14 per cent on the rate when the Government took office and one third more than the rainbow coalition provided in three budgets. A married couple will now be better off by £9 a week as a result of the increases provided for in this Bill and £15.50 better off since we came into office. These increases represent real increases for pensioners well ahead of expected increases in average earnings.
The Government is also committed to substantial increases in other social welfare payments. The personal rates of social welfare payments other than those for older people are being increased by at least £3 per week. A special increase of £3.60 per week is being provided in the short-term rate of unemployment assistance and supplementary welfare allowance. This ensures that these two rates now exceed the minimum rate set by the commission, equivalent to £71.80 in 1999 terms, thus fulfilling the commitment in Partnership 2000. We will keep the level of social welfare payments under review according to the targets set down on income adequacy in the National Anti-Poverty Strategy. I now wish to outline the provisions contained in the Bill. As Deputies will already have considered it in detail, I will focus on a number of key provisions.
Part III of the Bill, sections 10 to 14, provides for the implementation of the package of improvements for the carer's allowance. I want this Government to be known as the Government that put an end to the taking for granted of carers. We took a long hard look at the situation by carrying out an interdepartmental review of the carer's allowance. That review resulted in a number of proposals to improve the situation. I have acted on those proposals to the benefit of 11,500 carers and I have ensured that almost 3,500 new people are going to qualify for a carer's allowance for the first time as a result of this Bill and the recent budget.
