Oireachtas

Social Welfare Bill to be passed in just two days over three hours

Passage of legislation fuels mounting speculation of pre-Christmas election

Illustration: Paul Scott
Heather Humphreys: 'No matter what we do, it is not going to please everybody.' Illustration: Paul Scott
Marie O'Halloran
Wed Oct 16 2024 - 07:50

The Social Welfare Bill will be completed in the Dáil in just two days, with the speed of the process adding to the mounting speculation about a pre-Christmas general election.

The legislation, which gives effect to the payments and increases announced in Budget 2025, normally takes a month to wind its way through the various stages of debate and discussion.

But in an almost unprecedented move, the legislation finished second stage in the Dáil in just two hours on Tuesday, while committee and remaining stages will be completed in an hour on Wednesday, when the debate is guillotined or cut off.

Introducing the Bill in the Dáil, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said it was necessary to pass the provisions before the Halloween recess to ensure payments can begin to be made in November. However, Independent TD Mattie McGrath said it could be for “an election” and asked was it “trick or treat”.

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Ms Humphreys said it was her fifth budget as Minister for Social protection and she had “navigated the social protection ship through turbulent waters – the aftermath of Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, inflation and the cost-of-living increases”.

The Minister said she had learned that “no matter what we do, it is not going to please everybody and there will always be calls to do more.

“I accept that but we cannot do everything. What we can do is give a helping hand to those who need it the most.”

Outlining the measures in the Bill, Ms Humphreys said “it is still expensive to do the weekly shop, to fuel your car, pay your bills and make ends meet. That is why this Government put together a budget that supports families and our most vulnerable and puts money back in people’s pockets.”

Basic social welfare payments will increase by €12 a week. The Bill also provides access to carer’s benefit for the self-employed and for a €15 increase in the weekly rate of maternity benefit to €289 from January, with equivalent increases in adoptive benefit, paternity benefit and parent’s benefit. The carer’s benefit increases from €340 to €360.

Other measures include a €60 increase in the weekly income thresholds of the working family payment for all family sizes and recipients whose employment earnings do not increase will receive a €36-a-week increase.

The Bill also allows for the payment of a double rate of child benefit in November and December and making lump-sum payments of €400 to recipients of the working family payment next month.

There is an increase in the income threshold for employees on the minimum wage so that employers continue to pay 8.9 per cent on weekly wages rather than 11.15 per cent when the minimum wage increases on January 1st from €12.70 to €13.50 an hour. The threshold increases from €496 to €527 a week.

Sinn Féin’s Paul Donnelly said the budget “has failed to make the correct and necessary adjustments needed to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable in our society, including carers, children and people with disabilities”.

He said “there is a general sense that there was a clear attempt by the Government to buy the election. One-off measures are fine for Halloween or Christmas, but they do not deal with the fundamental issue of consistent poverty or help the tens of thousands of children in consistent poverty”.

Labour’s Seán Sherlock noted that in recent years “there has been a preponderance of one-off measures”. He said every family welcomed the one-off measures but “I have to question the sustainability of using that mechanism.”

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times