Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 April 2004
64 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the supports she has put in place for families in view of the fact that this is the tenth anniversary of the UN international year of the family; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12179/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has significant responsibilities in the provision of a range of support programmes for families. These include child benefit, one parent family payments for parents raising children alone, payments for families who are out of work through illness or unemployment, family income supplement and provision for carers. These are core responsibilities of my Department, the primary and overarching objective being to ensure that individuals and families have recourse to income support for themselves and their families in times of need.
The Government-led "families first" approach in recent years involved the development in my Department of a range of new initiatives to address the effects of divorce on families, to prevent marital breakdown where possible and to put in place a range of supports to assist families dealing with crises or major upheaval in their lives.
Last year, I established the Family Support Agency to draw together the main family-related programmes and services developed by the Government since 1997. The functions of the agency include the provision of services such as family mediation, marriage and relationship counselling, family support services and programmes, including parenting, and support for the promotion and development of family and community services. This year I have made some €20.185 million available to the agency to fulfil its functions, €7.16 million of which is for the scheme of grants for voluntary organisations providing marriage and relationship counselling and other family supports.
Last year I embarked on a wide ranging consultative process on strengthening families. I hosted a series of nationwide public consultation forums whose purpose was to provide me with the opportunity to hear the views of families and all those that work with them, including public representatives, about the major changes affecting families and what they see as the priorities for strengthening family well-being. The report of the public consultative forums, Families and Family Life in Ireland: Challenges for the Future, was published in February. It has been made widely available and is already stimulating wide debate in this, the tenth anniversary of the UN international year of the family. It will be fully taken into account in drawing up a clear, comprehensive, integrated strategy for strengthening families. It is my intention to have this strategy ready at the end of this year.
In drawing up the strategy I will also take account of the Irish Presidency conference on families, change and European social policy, which is to be held in May, and the international study by the OECD, entitled Babies and Bosses: Reconciling Work and Family Life, in which Ireland has participated.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
I am conscious of the fact that many families involved in community and voluntary groups will want to celebrate this anniversary year. With this in mind I have made €1 million available through an award scheme to facilitate the celebration of the year. The once-off special awards are available to locally based family and community groups and to larger regional and national groups to mark the year. Funding will be made available through a scheme of small once-off awards to local voluntary groups to assist with projects or events to celebrate the family in their area. More substantial awards will also be available to larger regional or national groups for once-off events or projects focusing on families and family life in today's Ireland. There has been a good response to the scheme so far and I expect to receive more applications before the closing date of 7 May.
Families have been let down by this Government over the last number of years. They are finding it difficult to get by and they are under threat. When will the Minister honour her broken commitment on child benefit? When will she deal with the problem of the three different rates for child dependant allowance? The three rates are €21.60, €19.30 and €16.80 per week and they have been at the same level for the last ten years. The difference between the highest and lowest rates is €250 per year, which is a lot of money for a family on social welfare.
When will the Minister deal with the problem of the adult dependant allowance? A wife receives 70% of her husband's payment, but if a couple are of the same sex each will receive 100% of the payment. Is this not a case of discrimination against the family? When will the Minister correct this anomaly so that a husband and wife will each receive 100% of the payment? At the moment each member of a gay couple receives 100% of the payment. That is wrong. What does the Minister intend to do about the 200,000 medical cards promised to families? Since this Government took office in 1997, 100,000 people have lost their medical cards. Is this doing anything for the family?
The question about medical cards is not relevant to the Minister.
It is a broken promise.
It is not relevant to this Minister.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I take the opportunity to wish you well in your recovery.
It is not for me to advise the House on Standing Orders, but the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is correct in saying that medical cards are not my responsibility. I congratulate Deputy Ring on circumventing the entire question. I was expecting a good discussion on many other issues to do with the family but he chose to stick to the issue of family income support. Within the programme for Government we indicated that we would be addressing the issue of child benefit. Almost €1.7 billion is being provided this year for child benefit. There have been major increases in child benefit over the last number of years. It is my intention that we will reach our target in child benefit prior to the completion of the Government's term.
We have had ongoing discussions about child dependant allowance. It is not my intention to address the issue of CDA until the issue of child benefit has been fully dealt with. The issue of same-sex couples is well outside the realm of this parliamentary question. However, it is a topical issue and will be addressed in a later question. On the basis of the Deputy's comments I am setting up an expert group to deal with this issue. We will also be analysing and taking into consideration the outcome of the consultation process of the Law Reform Commission. To deal with this discrimination I will be changing the legislation through the Social Welfare Bill.
I do not agree with the views of the Deputy that we are not supporting families. We are supporting families in a cogent way through family income supports and providing additional supports which are vital for family life through the Family Support Agency. As I said in my reply, it is my intention to advance further the issue of family supports. We must also take into consideration the diversity of family life. I feel, as I am sure every Member does, that it is important to have a child-centred approach.
Is it not true that the recent "savage 16" cutbacks were anti-family? The provision of rent supplement has an effect on families. If a marriage breaks up a wife may find herself in need of rent supplement in the middle of the night so she can have somewhere to stay. This is a problem.
The most important issue I have heard about, however, is the money, advice and budgeting service. This service was implemented in conjunction with the health boards. If a family got into difficulty, community welfare officers would sit down with them to work out a deal with the banks and the health boards could provide assistance. They can no longer do that because the Minister has taken away their powers to provide financial support. Is that not anti-family? Will she reverse that measure, which was one of the 16 cutbacks?
I will not reverse any other changes to my budget. The Deputy made two incorrect statements. If a woman finds herself in a difficult position and must leave the marital home, the CWO, under section 30, can institute his powers to facilitate her. It is incorrect to say that will not happen and it must be clarified. Scaremongering will get the Deputy nowhere.
The Minister said that about the widows two months ago but she reversed that cutback.
With regard to the MABS issue, I met the service's representatives. They are the only people who provide such a service. I indicated to them this system will not continue. However, it is my intention to support the expansion of MABS, which I have done this year. It is a money advice and budgeting service and operates in an advisory role. It has worked well and, in particular circumstances, support will be provided in consultation with MABS under the exceptional needs payment to provide for needy families. Many of those involved in MABS would prefer if it was up the people themselves to address the issues that arise, and would prefer to provide people with the necessary skills so that they can deal with their problems.
