Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 27 Feb 2001

Vol. 531 No. 3

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Payments.

Brendan Howlin

Ceist:

56 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the time-frame for the working group on the bench-marking of social welfare income; and if he has given any terms of reference or recommendations to the working group. [5735/01]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern):

The social welfare benchmarking and indexation working group was established in late 2000 under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. It is comprised of representatives from the social partners and Departments and is under the direction of an independent chairperson.

The group has met five times since its establish ment and continues to meet on a fortnightly basis. I understand that the group will produce an interim report by the end of April 2001 and that it will conclude its work later this year. The terms of reference of the group are drawn from the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and require it to 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 to the ongoing 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.

Given that it has been established in accordance with the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, it clearly would be inappropriate for me to make any recommendations to the group. I look forward, however, to seeing the outcome of its deliberations in due course.