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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 21 Nov 2000

Vol. 526 No. 3

Written Answers. - Benchmarking Commission.

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

337 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his Department will make a submission to the proposed benchmarking commission regarding the ratio of the level of social welfare income to general income; and his views on whether the national minimum wage should be part of this equation. [26607/00]

Under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, a working group is being established which will have a mandate to examine the range of issues associated with the benchmarking and indexation of social welfare payments. This will include its long-term economic, budgetary, PRSI contribution, distributive and incentive implications, in light of trends in economic, demographic and labour market patterns. It is envisaged that the working group will also take account of work being carried out to review the underlying methodology of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.

A chairperson for the group has now been appointed and the social partners and relevant Departments have been invited to formally nominate their representatives to the group.

In this regard, the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs will have two representatives on the group whose expertise in the area of social welfare policy will provide a significant input to the group's deliberations.

It would be inappropriate to pre-empt the discussions of the working group at this point.

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