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Updated at 2.30pm
THE €5 INCREASE to the State pension will come in in March of next year, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohue confirmed this afternoon.
It follows days of wrangling over the date for the introduction of the payment between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
Micheál Martin’s party wanted it to be introduced as close to the start of the year as possible – but there was resistance in Fine Gael, with the Government party arguing for the payment to be delayed so that welfare increases for other vulnerable groups could be afforded.
There’ll be €5 increases to all weekly social welfare payments too, from March, Donohoe confirmed today. That will include the carer’s allowance, disability allowance and jobseeker’s benefit and allowance.
There’ll also be an increase in the Christmas bonus paid to welfare recipients, rising from 75% of the weekly payment to 85%.
Independent Alliance / TwitterChristmas Social Welfare Bonus increased from 75% to 85%. #Budget17
— Independent Alliance (@IndepAlliance) October 11, 2016
Talks on resolving the outstanding issues in the Budget concluded yesterday.
Martin had warned at the weekend that the proposal to delay payment increases until the middle of next year was “unacceptable”.
That followed criticism of the government from other senior members of his party the previous day, with Fianna Fáil public expenditure spokesman Dara Calleary singling out Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar for criticism, saying:
Leo likes to make you think he is all cuddly and caring and that he suddenly walked into a phone box and walked out with a cape of fairness – that’s not Leo.
However by yesterday the language being used by both sides was more measured, with Finance Minister Michael Noonan saying Fianna Fáil had been very responsible in its role so far and FF’s Michael McGrath saying it would be unthinkable that there wouldn’t be a deal – given that the stakes were so high.
Age Action
Responding to today’s €5 increase, Justin Moran of lobby group Age Action described it as a “first step”.
“We welcome today’s €5 increase as the first step in delivering on that commitment to Ireland’s half a million pensioners,” he said in a statement.
More than 85,000 people over the age of 65 are living in deprivation because of rising costs and cuts to income supports. They need a fair State Pension that will enable older people to live with dignity and independence.
The organisation also expressed its disappointment at the decision to delay the increase.
“While the pension increase is welcome, delaying it to the start of March is going to disappoint many older people who will lose out during some of the coldest months of the year.
A two month delay means a loss of €40 to someone struggling to keep their home warm or to pay for medicine.
I wonder if someone did take him out 30 years ago, would Zimbabwe be the basket case he turned it into, or would some other “leader”, equally malingnant have just taken his place.
It’s tempting to write Africa off, but these things are not inevitable. The neighbours in Botswana were a landlocked, diamond rich former colony. Not an obvious candidate for success. And yet they were, partly because of Seretse Khama’s leadership, but also because people kept voting for him.
Unfortunately, for every relative success story there are 50 failed states. Nation building is hard and requires guts, enterprise, selflessness and vision. Mugabe wasn’t even asked to nation build. He was handed a fully functioning, very rich and successful country and managed to level it in less than a generation. That takes mean spiritness, stupidity, and the most crass selfishness and myopic vision, which, unfortunately, seems to be the calibre of most African leaders. Take and destroy is what they do and in the meantime, the west continues to do what the west does best. Assuage our feelings of western guilt by feeding, clothing and vaccinating the Africans left behind by their very own “leaders”.
We can write much of Africa off if the Chinese economy falters, And also, we can take Australia with it.
Problem with africa is its full of africans
“Unfortunate event”
In who’s eyes ????
Funny that at Mandela’s memorial when the camera would go to different world leaders the crowd would cheer or boo depending on who it was on. Mugabe got a massive cheer and Bush Jnr got a massive boo. Ya no your screwed when Mugabe gets a bigger cheer than ya!
It was an ANC crowd at the funeral & Mugabe was a big supporter if the ANC during apartheid times so I’d be sure that’s why he was cheered rather than for his recent policies.
That says a lot more about the crowd than it does about Bush Jr.
Whatever you can accuse Bush Jr. of, laying waste to his country, starving his people, killing the productive farmers and having an ugly greedy, mean wife isnt among them. An ANC crowd can turn into a vicious mob at the turn of a hair. Being rational abd discerning is not their thing.
Hurricane Katrina anyone? ;)
Sadly, probably the latter.
Problem with Africa is the tribal government system, and the mentality of it’s people.
@coom
Same could be said for a lot of countries..including ours!
Christina who wrote that paper? Dept of the Taoiseach?
While it is true that Robert Mugabe has a few character flaws, it cannot be denied that he is an active leader who stands up for his people. Much better than the shower we have running this country, he is. You can bet Robert Mugabe would have burned the bondholders and sent the IMF home with a flea in their ear.
Pity he didn’t have a fatal “accident” here.
Proably after totruring them first…Thing is we can elect another incompetant shower to govern us.Mugabe is there forever like a big black blood sucking tick on Zimbabwae.But then thats what happens if you let Marxist gun waving loons loose on a perfectly functioning and producing ,albeit not without is fault state.Turn it into a dictatorship that makes the previous oppression by whomever look like paradise.
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