Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 October 2009
106 Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will make public the contents of her initial evaluation paper prepared for the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34376/09]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes was established by the Minister for Finance to examine current expenditure programmes in each Department and to make recommendations for reducing public service numbers to facilitate a return to sustainable public finances.
At the special group's request, my Department submitted an evaluation report on the various schemes and services operated by the Department as well as expenditure trends, to facilitate the group's examination of my Department's expenditure. The evaluation report described the Department's work, identified some key policy issues and provided a range of options for changes in schemes and services to assist the special group in its deliberations.
Those options were not advanced as the proposals of the Department but as items which might be technically feasible within the parameters of given schemes or across schemes. Some of the options identified are mutually exclusive. Others interact with each other, often in a complex way. The cumulative impact of proposals on various categories of social welfare recipients also have to be taken into account. Finally, some options, as indicated by my Department, might need to be reconciled with wider Government policies, such as policies to promote employment, education or training.
The document prepared by the Department has been made available to individuals who sought its release under the Freedom of Information Act, including the Fine Gael leader's office. It has also been published on the website of the Department of Finance and can be accessed at www.finance.gov.ie.
As per the FOI guidelines, certain material has been withheld from publication as it concerns matters relating to the deliberative process which were not put forward as proposals by the special group. The deliberative process is ongoing for the upcoming budget and the Estimates process. In this context, and giving due regard to the public interest, it was considered to be inappropriate to publish certain elements of the document prepared by the Department at this stage.
I am stunned by the material that was released under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. I accept that this is a series of options as opposed to recommendations but the people and those who represent them on the Opposition benches should be entitled to see the options. Going through the report, there are pages and pages of blacked-out measures. That is not transparent governance.
People are entitled to some appreciation of the thinking of the Department. We face one of the most crucial budgets in the history of the State and the Minister and her Department are withholding important information that ought to be put in the public domain so different elements of civil society and those affected can look at the options available.
This has fed into the findings of the McCarthy report and the Government has been completely irresponsible in forcing Mr. McCarthy to defend his own report. The only Cabinet Minister with the gumption to defend any of the recommendations in the report is the Minister for Finance. Every other Minister has failed to stand up and be counted. There is a proposal for savings of €1.8 billion in the Department of Social and Family Affairs and no one on the Opposition benches is any the wiser as to where those savings will come from.
Decisions have not been made on several of these issues and will not be made until the budget so it is important we be allowed to take time in the deliberative process. The Freedom of Information Act facilitates that, specifically allowing for exclusion of information where a decision has not yet been made. Every decision related to social welfare is linked to the budget so those decisions have not been made yet. There are other areas of the report that were excluded because they would disclose positions to be taken in Government negotiations.
We are not trying to keep information from people, we are trying to allow a reasoned debate on the issues. The public knows the issues, everyone knows the schemes and the numbers benefiting from them. No decisions have been made on any issue and the documents provided to the McCarthy group are the very documents the Government will use to make its decisions in the next few weeks.
The McCarthy report has been described as a red pen exercise. It is easy to go through budgets and slash left, right and centre with no regard for the implications of the cuts.
One proposal was the discontinuation of the €30 million funding for the Family Support Agency. I am keen to know the Minister's thinking on this area given her background as Minister with responsibility for children. Presumably the Minister accepts the need for early intervention in family difficulties and the need to provide family support services. What is the Minister's thinking about such services now? It is easy to say we could save €30 million but has there been any estimate of the likely savings in justice, social welfare, education and other areas through the provision of early intervention services from the Family Support Agency? It is a "no-brainer" as far as I can see.
It would be possible for me to ask but not to answer regarding all of the proposals in the McCarthy report because decisions have not been taken on any of them. In all of our considerations I have made it clear that we examine how a scheme or payment impacts on other schemes and not just in my Department. I want to ensure any decision made in social welfare that relates to children is examined in terms of its impact on the same family through changes in education or health. It is only when the budget is being worked out and we make our recommendations that we will see the impact.
The way the Family Support Agency was addressed in the McCarthy report was misleading. It gave the impression that by abolishing an agency there would be a €30 million saving. When the figures are broken down, much of the funding goes to the Family Support Agency while another large amount goes to counselling grants. It is not quite the same as a €30 million saving from abolishing an agency. It almost gives the impression it is entirely concerned with administration and that does a disservice to the work of the Family Support Agency.
The Minister claims that blacking out passages allows for debate, something I do not understand. One section in the report received by Deputy Kenny's office covers carer's allowance, carer's benefit and respite care grant. Every single possible option is considered and 12 paragraphs are blacked out. How does that enable debate? How do we know what is being considered for carers? There is a great deal of concern about these proposals among carers.
Are the Minister's considerations for the budget solely based on the McCarthy report and the Commission on Taxation or is the Minister also considering other changes or reductions that are not in those reports?
The only instruction that we have at the moment is to reduce the social welfare budget. It has not been predetermined as to how that is going to be done. When I say that it leads to a debate, I mean that it allows discussion at Government level and in here to take place, in the knowledge of what people are getting, how many of them are getting it, and so on. The fact that a 5% or 3% cut is recommended in the McCarthy report has resulted in a panic being created throughout the country. There are 600 groups that receive grants from the Family Support Agency, and they are all writing in to me in a panic.
It was the Government that created the panic by ordering the report.
It does not help people if they feel that they are being threatened from all sides. In our deliberations, we will not take a red pen to different things.
They will take a black pen.
We will be looking to see how we interact with other agencies and Departments, and how the cuts are being examined overall. The most sensitive and most difficult area in which to make change is the social welfare budget. It is still a priority and a policy of this Government, no matter what changes we make, that we protect the most vulnerable.
