asked the Minister for Social Welfare as social welfare payments in Ireland are only 70 per cent of the average payments in other EC countries, the steps, if any, the Government are taking to provide the other 30 per cent; if this will be part of the Single European Act; if the EC will insist on the Irish social recipient being paid at least the equal of EC payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Welfare Payments.
4.
Neither the Treaty of Rome nor the Single European Act contain any provisions which oblige member states of the EC to provide similar social security schemes or the same level of payments under those schemes. As far as social security is concerned, Article 51 of the Treaty of Rome provides for the protection and maintenance of the social security entitlements of workers moving from one member state to another.
The EC regulations are co-ordinating measures which enable a worker's employment record as determined by national legislation to be maintained by aggregating periods of employment in various member states for the purpose of retaining rights to benefit and which also lay down procedures for determining the national institutions liable for payment of benefits. The regulations do not have any provisions for deciding the level of benefits. This is entirely a matter for the individual member states.
I think the Deputy has possibly misinterpreted a statement in my reply last month to a question on the level of poverty in this country and, in particular, how that level compares with the levels of poverty in other EC countries. In that reply I stated that Ireland's gross domestic product per head at present stands at around 70.7 per cent of the EC average, and so inevitably the general standard of living of all sections of the population in Ireland is bound to be significantly below the standard of living in most of the other EC countries.
As our general standard of living is lower, the actual level of social welfare payments which we can afford to provide is also lower. A more significant basis for comparison with other EC countries would be the degree of redistribution, in the form of social protection sevices, to the weaker sections of the community. In this regard in 1983 the percentage of GDP devoted to social protection in Ireland was 23.9 per cent just 4 per cent below the average for the 9 EC countries, excluding Greece, Spain and Portugal for whom information is not available.
The Minister agrees that our standard of living is 70.7 per cent of the European average therefore our social welfare provision has to fall below that level and then he introduces the notion of social protection which is really dealing with the most distressed category. Will the Minister acknowledge that the thrust of this question was to ask whether we would use the opportunity of having a non-tariff Europe, an integrated market, to significantly redistribute resources so as to give more to those in receipt of social welfare as was promised so often and in such a shrill way during the campaign on the SEA?
The regulations in this area had no provisions for deciding the levels of benefit. It relates to the continuity of benefits and to the transferability of benefits between countries. Neither the Treaty of Rome nor the Single European Act contain such measures, desirable as they would be. I agree with the Deputy in that sense.
It is clearly understood, therefore from the Minister's reply that there is a legal inhibition following our adoption of the Single European Act on the placing of tariffs but there is no legal obligation for advantages in social welfare of a redistributive kind or, as it will transpire in the autumn, any legal obligations to have any redistributed regional funds. That is the position.
Without going into the Single European Act, regional funds are to be altered and increased. There is no provision under the Treaty of Rome or the Single European Act in relation to the levels of benefit.
As I said.