Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I know how hard it will be for these people. This was probably the most difficult decision the Government was obliged to make in framing the supplementary budget. It is correct to state that we would not have made this decision next November. At that stage, people would have had a reasonable expectation that they would receive the money in December and it would have been completely unfair to dash their hopes.

See this speech in context