Today is the last day in existence of the Combat Poverty Agency. Whatever reason the Government had to abolish this agency, it is not because it has put an end to poverty. Last Wednesday I raised with the Taoiseach the problems faced by poor people in my constituency — people who have recently been hit by poverty — in accessing the emergency social welfare service operated by the community welfare officers. Today there is still no community welfare officer in Dún Laoghaire. We are told the officer will not be back until 13 July and no cover has been provided. Neither is there any cover for the community welfare officer in Loughlinstown, who will not be back until 14 July.

This service operates for people who have no money. Does anybody in the Government understand what it is like to have no money? One cannot use a credit card because one does not have one; one cannot go to the ATM because one does not have a bank account, or there is nothing in it. The only place one can go if one has no money is to a community welfare officer. In my constituency, which I share with the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, who is sitting beside the Taoiseach, people who have no money are now being told there will be nobody to provide them with money until 13 or 14 July. I raised this last week and nothing was done about it.

Meanwhile, the message that people who have little or no money have been getting over the weekend is the orchestrated leaking of the report of an bord snip nua. We are told it is intended to reduce the social welfare bill by €1.5 billion, which represents a cut of slightly over 7% on basic social welfare payments. This means that a person receiving €204 per week, which is less than €11,000 per year, would have his or her weekly payment cut by about €14. These are the stories we have been hearing over the weekend.

Can somebody ensure that the community welfare service operates efficiently throughout the country and that there is somebody there to meet and hear the needs of people who have no money? Will the Taoiseach give an assurance to pensioners and people on basic social welfare payments that their payments will not be cut?

The matter raised last week by Deputy Gilmore is being followed up. The community welfare officer is an important front line service which provides significant support to disadvantaged people. Notwithstanding the pressure it is under, it is critical that the service be maintained. As a result of a significant level of staff absence due to sick leave, as the Deputy pointed out last week, the Dún Laoghaire and Loughlinstown clinics were closed by the superintendent community welfare officer at short notice. The HSE has expressed its regret that the matter was not solved speedily without interruption of service. Emergency measures are now in place to resolve the difficulty. The clinics in question will be open tomorrow from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. to deal with immediate priority cases and will have full-time staff in place from Thursday. The ongoing industrial relations issues have been referred to the Labour Relations Commission and a date is awaited. I wished to clarify this for the House as the matter has been resolved in the past number of hours after representations by the Minister.

With regard to the question arising from Deputy Gilmore's statement, the commitment of this Government to social welfare provision is demonstrated by a record over which we are proud to stand, including the quadrupling of child benefit over the past ten years — from €44 to €166 per week — and doubling of jobseeker's allowance and old age pension. We made those important improvements in times when resources were available to the State, and rightly so. The Deputy referred to the fact that the Combat Poverty Agency is being moved within the remit of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. It is not going out of business. In regard to the national anti-poverty strategy, the implementation of many of the targets that arose under that strategy over the years has fed into the social partnership process and into much of the budgetary policy and decisions that have arisen in successive budgets over a long period of time. I contend that this commitment has been very significant.

The Minister for Finance will deliver a budget in early December. At this point in time, coming into the month of July, it is important to point out that public service pay and pensions together with social welfare make up some two thirds of total day-to-day expenditure. We are facing into a difficult situation this year whereby we are borrowing in the region of €70 million per day to meet the difference between revenue take and the cost of providing public services, including in all those important areas to which the Deputy referred. The Government is very cognisant of the need to ensure, in devising its budgetary strategy for 2010 and thereafter, that we protect to the greatest extent possible those on social welfare and those who require the assistance of the State. That will be fundamental to our approach.

It is also important to point out that the increase in social welfare rates, depending on the various payments, was between 3% and 3.8% in the 2009 budget. This was against a predicted inflation rate of 2.5%, but what we are seeing this year is a deflation rate of the order of 4%, with the consumer price index declining by that percentage in the course of this year. While nobody suggests that welfare payments, by their very nature, are sufficient in all circumstances, I stand over the record of this Government and successive Ministers for Social and Family Affairs who ensured in the good times that we had record social welfare budget packages. Included in this number are the current Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, and her predecessors, the Minister, Deputy Martin Cullen, the late Séamus Brennan and others. At this point in the process, as we face into a difficult budgetary situation, we must consider all options while being mindful of the need to protect the most vulnerable to the greatest extent we can possibly can.

I am glad to hear that the local problem is being resolved, but it should not have required me to raise it here twice before that happened. This type of emergency service should not break down anywhere and I hope we do not see a repetition of the problem elsewhere.

My second question was to ask the Taoiseach whether he would give an assurance to pensioners and others that there will not be a cut in basic social welfare payments. I can only interpret his reply as a coded confirmation that there will be cuts. Does the Taoiseach consider it reasonable that persons on €204 per week, or less than €11,000 per year, should have their level of payment reduced? I again invite him to assure people categorically that basic social welfare payments will not be cut.

Does the Taoiseach intend to publish the report of an bord snip nua? If so, will he inform the House when that will be done and whether it will be published in full?

In regard to the specific issue Deputy Gilmore raised last week and which has been resolved on the basis of the most up-to-date information, there is genuine regret on behalf of the Health Service Executive that this issue arose in the first place. It is a problem that need not and should not be repeated. I hope that is the case. As I said, there are ongoing industrial relations issues which have been referred to the Labour Relations Commission.

This is not an industrial relations issue.

There are no industrial relations issues in regard to the specific question raised by the Deputy, and he expressed the hope that they would not arise elsewhere. My point is that there is a need for a long-standing industrial relations issue to be resolved so that we can move on.

That is a different matter.

It is a red herring.

I am entitled to make that general point as well as answering the specific question.

It is a separate issue.