'No decision' on social welfare cuts

The administrative problems posed by imposing child benefit cuts on cohabiting couples are still being examined, Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin said this morning.

Despite various reports of a 10 per cent cut to child benefit payments and a 5 per cent cut to all social welfare payments, Ms Hanafin said no final decisions on social welfare cuts had yet been made.

The Budget will be held next Wednesday, December 9th.

Asked about her previous suggestion that there could be a three-tier scheme of child benefit payments, she said she was still dealing with the issue of how to treat co-habiting couples. “There was always a difficulty, and there still remains a difficulty of identifying people who are co-habiting,” she said.

“We do have within the finance system, within the revenue system, people who are high earners, we have married couples who are high earners but there are still difficulties surrounding the other groups. So we are still working on that but the intention remains the same which is to try and be fair.”

Ms Hanafin said she wanted to protect vulnerable families while not imposing too severe a cut on working couples who were paying mortgages and childcare fees.

“No decision has been made finally by Government yet,” she said. “Obviously we want to do it in a way that’s very fair to ensure that we protect the vulnerable families and not to impose too severe a cut on couples who are working but who are also paying mortgages and paying for childcare.”

Asked about a reported plan to cut social welfare payments by 5 per cent, she said: “Talking about cuts in anything at the moment is still a bit premature”.

She said the Government was meeting daily "to try and work out all of the different expenditure savings and indeed the revenue-raising measures that can be taken"

On the talks about cuts to the public sector, she said no final decision had been made on where savings would be found. “We’re very hopeful we can get an agreement. We need that money. We need reform in the public service but we also need to bridge that €4 billion gap,” Ms Hanafin said. “Certainly as a Government we won’t accept a fudge.”

Ms Hanafin was speaking before she launched the Institute of Public Administration’s 2010 Administration Yearbook & Diary in Dublin. The 44th edition of the book includes details of some 7,000 organisations in the public and private sector.