Kenny says carers, blind and disabled should have been excluded from cuts

THE GOVERNMENT could have excluded carers, the disabled and the blind from the social welfare cuts by abolishing quangos, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed.

He said the cost of their exclusion would be €108 million.

“My contention is the Taoiseach has made a very bad choice. For example, had the Government chosen to accept more of the McCarthy report’s recommendations on the elimination of quangos it would have saved €175 million.”

Fine Gael last night moved a Private Members’ motion calling for a reversal of the social welfare cuts.

Earlier, Mr Kenny said the blind pension was means tested. “If a person who is blind has any means, or is married to a person of means, he or she cannot draw the pension. Those who do qualify apply for the old age pension when they reach the qualifying age because it is of a higher value. There are only 1,500 people in this category nationally, yet the Minister has taken €8.60 off them every week.”

Carers, said Mr Kenny, provided over three million hours of care annually because of their love of kith and kin. “The Taoiseach and I have been in houses and have seen people with dementia and incontinence, and we have noted the pressure on those who look after these people on a full-time basis. These carers save the State an average of €40,000 each, which amounts to hundreds of millions of euro every year, yet the response of the Government has been to take €8.60 off each of them.” The same applied to the disabled, he said.

He said the Government had pumped billions into a black hole of banks and had allowed people with pensions of over €100,000 to walk away untouched.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government had to consider how to have a sustainable social welfare system against the fact that the revenues coming into the exchequer were at the same level that they were six years ago. “In the meantime, when resources allowed, there were, rightly, significant increases way beyond the cost of living increases for social welfare recipients. The Government is quite proud of what it achieved during those years.”

In the pre-budget outlook, the Government had to take a position on social welfare spending reductions. “That being said, I recognise that any reduction in social welfare rates is a disappointment to their recipients. We made this decision out of the necessity of ensuring that we have a social welfare code going into the future which we can sustain.”

Pressed further by Mr Kenny, Mr Cowen said it was easy for the leader of the Opposition to suggest continually there were easier ways of finding money. “The €4 billion that we recalled simply stabilises the deficit. We still have an exchequer borrowing requirement this year of €18.8 billion.”

He said while acknowledging “one is open to criticism when one touches a social welfare rate at any time, the best prospect of maintaining the levels of support the Government built up over the years must be sought”.