Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is arguing that to have increased the living alone allowance would have been far better than increasing the overall pension position. We took an approach of substantially increasing the overall pension position for both the couple and the individual. The benefit to the individual has been considerably greater than it would have been if we had simply moved the pro rata basis of the living alone allowance. That is simple and straightforward. All pensioners have said to me that the correct approach is the one we have pursued in Government of addressing the overall benefit of all pensioners by increasing substantially the pension for both couples and individuals in recent years.

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