TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has refused to be drawn on a report that the Government could cut €1 billion from next year’s social welfare bill.

“The Government is involved in a comprehensive spending review of all departments. And I mean all departments,” he said.

He added that every Minister would have to answer to Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin before the estimates were prepared for next year and the picture produced for the following three years.

When Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald asked him to comment on an Irish Times report of potential cuts, the Taoiseach said it was “speculation”. The Government, he added, would announce its decisions when they were made.

Ms McDonald said that in the absence of a published spending review, and of the Taoiseach giving any affirmation to the House that he would not cut welfare, there was only conjecture.

“I judge from the tone of his remarks that he is equivocating,” she said. “He is not prepared to repeat his pre-election promise to protect welfare payments.”

She said Mr Kenny should address the issue of the proposed reductions to rent supplement, which kept a roof over 95,000 households.

“The Taoiseach knows as well as I do that the local authority housing stock is woefully inadequate and that any cut to rent supplement would cause huge difficulty and suffering to people who are also struggling,” she added.

Ms McDonald said that what the Government called social welfare fraud was “irregular payments, including departmental error”.

The Taoiseach, she said, might look at the extravagant salaries paid to special advisers to the Government which were sanctioned by it in breach of its own caps.

One special adviser to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton received a salary of €127,796, she added.

“This is the same Government that is cooking up plans to slash the welfare budget,” said Ms McDonald.

Mr Kenny said the special adviser “singled out for Sinn Féin treatment” had left the private sector on a salary of more than €200,000 to take up a temporary contract advising Ms Burton on a salary of €129,000.

The Taoiseach said the country was in an economic bind, with constraints upon it.

“Those who are drawing social welfare payments legitimately do not want to see others in the system scamming it off,” he added. “This causes considerable anger and resentment.”

People who were in the social protection payment area did not want to see “that kind of carry-on” when they were trying to get back to work, said Mr Kenny.The decisions arising from the public expenditure review would be published before the budget.

He met people all the time who were on social welfare lists, he said. The Government’s job was to balance the requirement of getting the deficit to 8.6 per cent of gross domestic product next year, while providing a measure of confidence, hope and initiative for the economy and getting as many people as possible back to work.

Ms McDonald said nobody wanted to see any social welfare payment “scammed”, and, equally, nobody should cast aspersions on welfare recipients by constantly using the word “fraud” when the correct term was “irregular payments”.

Mr Kenny said that Ms McDonald was a member of the Public Accounts Committee which had looked at irregular social welfare payments and fraud.

“We have been left with a mess, which means we must make a range of decisions,” the Taoiseach added.