Hanafin not targeting any one group

MEASURES WILL be taken to ensure that cuts in the social welfare budget do not disproportionately hit any one group, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin has promised.

Speaking to journalists at an event in Dublin yesterday, Ms Hanafin could not say definitively whether any section would be protected from welfare cuts in the forthcoming budget.

“I genuinely can’t answer that. The social welfare budget is the last part to be decided on when the budget is being framed. We have to look first at cuts in other departments and at the pay,” Ms Hanafin said.

“Social welfare makes up 37 per cent of the total budget and we can’t keep it at that level. That does have to be cut. That is unsustainable.

“However, the social inclusion unit of my department, which now incorporates the Combat Poverty Agency, presented a report to the Cabinet subdivision on social inclusion last Wednesday, where they looked at the impact of cuts and the McCarthy proposals and measured them up,” the Minister added.

She said that the unit would present a further report, also looking at the impact of possible cuts in medical cards and the school transport scheme “on our customers” and how these would interact with possible welfare cuts.

Ms Hanafin was yesterday opening a new local social welfare office at King’s Inns Street in Dublin city centre, which will replace an old office at North Cumberland Street, which had been in use for 36 years.

The new office will serve customers from the north inner city out to Clontarf, Drumcondra, Glasnevin and parts of Santry.