Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Vincentian Partnership research, which I have read, was a valuable contribution in our consideration of the budget as was the forum which we held with all of the organisations involved. There has been no increase in the living alone allowance since 1996 because the emphasis has been on increasing basic rates of payment. With a pot of €515 million, the amount allocated to the social welfare package in Budget 2009, I had to prioritise and to ensure the basic rates increased for everybody. It was not possible this year to give the same increases as we gave last year. Were I to target even more specifically groups living alone I would have had to take money from other people and perhaps given some of them less than the anticipated rate of inflation and this would not have been fair either. In trying to prioritise, I had to ensure the basic rates were increased. This is the reason for increases such as the €7 per week increase for pensioners. To give to anybody else would have required me to take this increase from them.

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