Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

People, including outsiders, urged us not to cut the rates and to cut the extras. The extras would have imposed more hardship on more people. Let us consider the respite care grant. It has grown from €245 to €1,700 and a change to that would have had a greater financial impact on thousands more people than simply cutting the rate. As a Minister it would have been easier to stand and refrain from cutting the rate and simply cut the grant.

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