Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I take the Deputy's point but I have to start somewhere in dealing with the living alone allowance, and we took a view on that. I take Deputy Stanton's point in particular. We have a responsibility to help people who find themselves living alone and to devise and amend our systems to ensure they get whatever extra support is possible without it becoming a disincentive. That is the way we are trying to design the system.

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