Written Answers. - Minimum Income Recommendations.
Tom Moffatt
Ceist:
67
Dr. Moffatt
asked the
Minister for Social Welfare
the steps, if any, which have been taken to ensure that Ireland complies with the EU recommendations on minimum income and on the convergence of social protection systems recommendations 92/441/EEC and 92/442/EEC; and the extent to which the Irish social welfare system complies with these recommendations.
[18566/96]
Council recommendations of the type which are the subject of the Deputy's question do not have binding force on member states in the same way as directives. The idea of compliance with their strict terms therefore does not arise. They are, however intended to guide and inform the direction of national policy. I can confirm that Ireland has been fully supportive of the two recommendations in question and has observed their broad spirit in developing the social welfare system since then.
Recommendation 92/441/EEC, which was adopted by the Social Affairs Council on 24 June 1992, urged member states to ensure that their social protection systems give recognition to "the basic right of a person to sufficient resources and social assistance to live in a manner compatible with human dignity as part of a comprehensive and consistent drive to combat social exclusion". It recommended, in particular, that people with no other means of subsistence should receive "sufficient resources and social assistance in keeping with their situation".
Ireland was already engaged in providing support to people in such a contingency via the social assistance system and, in particular, the supplementary welfare allowance system. It has been my policy since coming into office to develop both the adequacy of rates of payment within social assistance and to improve the delivery mechanisms. As the Deputy will already know, in regard to adequacy of payments, I have commissioned a study from the ESRI on updating the work of the 1986 Commission on Social Welfare on the issues of target rates for adequacy in social welfare rates generally; I would hope that on receipt of this report to make further progress in that regard.
The second recommendation cited in the Deputy's question, 92/442/EEC of 27 July 1992, refers to the concept of convergence among member states on the objectives and policies of social protection. The recommendation went through the various well-known categories of social protection — for example maternity, unemployment, incapacity for work, old age and support for families — and set out certain agreed basic principles in relation to how these should be administered in the member states. These included equality of treatment, fairness, including the idea that recipients should receive their share of improvements in the standard of living of the population as a whole; flexibility, in order to accommodate to new needs in social protection; and efficiency of organisation and delivery.
The idea behind this recommendation was to agree among member states on certain basic principles which are held in common in our diverse national systems and to ensure that the future direction of these systems of social protection should take account of these principles. The Commission has followed up by producing a biennial report on social protection in 1993 and 1995 which traces how developments in the social protection systems of member states relate to these principles.
Developments in the social welfare system since 1992 — for example, increases in rates above the inflation rate, improvements to the child benefit system, the introduction of a survivor's pension and the payment of equal treatment arrears — all contribute to the development of the Irish system as a whole in line with these objectives.
I have taken the opportunity of the Irish Presidency to propose to my colleagues in the Social Affairs Council of Ministers that we adopt a resolution, at our 2 December meeting, which would have the effect of adding an important new objective to those set out in recommendation 92/442/EEC. My aim is to secure agreement to the effect that social protection systems, while continuing to support the objectives referred to above, should have the additional aim of contributing positively to the prevention of unemployment and to the re-integration of the unemployed, particularly the long-term unemployed and marginalised people. It would be up to individual member states to take whatever steps are appropriate, however, in our own case this resolution would suggest that we act to develop clearer incentives to take and stay in work and a greater array of active supports to people who are having difficulty in getting back into the world of work.
