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Updated 4.29pm
JOAN BURTON HAS said it is her “hope and expectation” that the partially restored Christmas Bonus can be increased again next year.
The Department of Social Protection has begun paying out the bonus for the first time in five years this week to some 1.2 million long-term welfare claimants including jobseekers, pensioners, carers, lone parents and those with a disability.
The once-off Christmas bonus – which amounted to double a person’s usual social welfare payment – was abolished by the Fianna Fáil-Green government in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis but it was partially restored as part of October’s budget.
This year the bonus amounts to 25 per cent of a claimant’s usual payment with those in receipt of the full Jobseekers Benefit receiving an additional €47.
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Burton said she wanted to increase it further if resources allow in the coming years.
“My hope and expectation is that as resources come in we are able to increase it and to have targeted increases in term of social protection to people relying on social welfare income over a long period of time, that they would see some improvement,” she said.
Burton said that going around the country pensioners had told her that they wanted the weekly social welfare rate and free travel pass protected as well as the restoration of the Christmas Bonus.
The Minister for Social Protection said she believed all parties would be favourable towards giving people extra money at Christmas.
“I think for pensioners on a fixed income , to have a little bit extra at this time of the year to contribute towards Christmas, you know because it’s an expensive time, I think that that’s something that all I think all of the parties in the Dáil would agree on,” she added.
Speaking in the Dáil later in the day, the Tánaiste reiterated her commitment to restoring the Christmas Bonus saying this year’s partial restoration was “a start”.
“The reintroduction of the bonus, although it is on a partial basis, along with the other welfare provisions announced in the Budget, they’re real indicators of a social dividend in respect of the economic recovery,” Burton added.
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Wow! Now even the bins are spying on us. All we need now is for public toilets to record all our “movements” and the colour of our underwear and big brother will know all it possibly could about us. Who needs privacy?!
Good one shirley, “movements” lol!!
They likely already do. Think about the movement activated flushes and the movement activated lights.
*may or may not be serious, I’ll let you decide.
Ha ha, nice one Shirley, what colour is your under pants indeed………?
Public toilets testing your ‘movements’ has been proposed to screen for health problems. I think it would be a great idea really, provided the information was confidentially passed to a smart phone or emailed to you.
What underpants? Commando is the only way to go in this weather!
Good one Shirley.
“Colour of your underwear”..hmm
What if….What if the bins refuse to stop collecting data?
And so it begins…..
I love London, it’s my 34th favorite place in the world to be.
You’re my 34th favourite poster on the Journal.ie
That’s the 27th time somebody has said that to me
It would never work here – no bins.
So why, with so much surveillance, can’t they find the idiots who damaged signals so the Dart is out of action this morning
Those bins are in London
My god why cant a bin just collect rubbish? What next, laptops that recycle your lunch waste!?
My emails are already intercepted by my laptop and smartphone. Shocking.
The difference between hits on a website and this scenario is people are aware of cookies on their computer and informed again each time they go into a new website. Ya wouldn’t really be expecting a bin to be spying on you. A whole new meaning to bin it your way.
and strictly speaking web-sites aren’t supposed to share this with one another .. which is the focus of the rather big “Do Not Track” privacy-debate that is currently ongoing on the web …
How are people going to know if its collecting their data already?
How is the average Joe going to know they are going to turn it on or off in any case?
The government possibly already has this technology in bloody street lamps and we don’t know about it!
government = your elected representatives who have a security mandate (for better or worse)
Renew = a private enterprise, who may or may not flip your identity over to any bidder if times get tough
So now they will throw the bins in the rubbish, like a Big Brother has been!
Spooooky I means
Well I know “THEY” are spying on me. “THEY” keep taking money out of my pay cheque whether I like it or not.
Almost darlik like…sooooooky!
Just for future reference, it’s dalek.
Minority report.
Maybe they want to collect the parts for recycling. It is a good idea because some parts of phone are radio active.
Read the article again there chap.
Yes. But the same level of surveillance exists here in Ireland
If you think we have the same level of surveillance as they have in the UK, especially London, you’re either seriously paranoid or you’ve never visited the neighbours.
Most, if not all phone masts, are fitted with surveillance equipment here
Have you even read the article ???
My post was for Francis
You couldn’t piss crooked without them knowing it.
Has bins..
It looks like a Dalek prototype.
WTF!?
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