Written Answers. - Social Welfare Rates.
Thomas P. Broughan
Question:
169
Mr. Broughan
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
if he will report on the membership and terms of reference of the new Benchmarking Working Group on social welfare rates; and when it will report.
[29917/00]
In recent weeks, the respective pillars of social partnership have nominated representatives to the benchmarking and indexation group, as provided for under section 3.2.3 of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
The independent chairperson of the group is Professor Kieran Kennedy, former director of the Economic and Social Research Institute. The group includes representatives of the four pillars of the PPF – the employers, the unions, the farmers, and the voluntary and community sector. In addition, representatives from my own Department, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment have been nominated to the group. My Department also provides the secretariat to the group. For ease of reference, I am arranging for a full list of the group membership to be circulated in the Official Report.
The terms of reference provide that, in accordance with the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, the working group shall: examine the issues involved in developing a benchmark for adequacy of adult and child social welfare payments, including the implications of adopting a specific approach for uprating or indexation of payments, having regard to their long-term economic, budgetary, PRSI contribution, distributive and incentive implications, in light of trends in economic, demographic and labour market patterns; and examine the issue of relative income poverty.
The first meeting of the group was held this morning and I understand that a schedule of work for the coming months was on the agenda for that meeting. The PPF envisaged that the working group would have completed its work by April 2001. However, given that the first meeting was held this morning and the range of complex issues that must be explored, this timeframe may not be realistic. In this event, I would expect an interim report by the end of April with conclusion of deliberations later in the year.
