John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Rather than talk about mean-spiritedness, it is important to recognise what has been achieved over the years. In the good times, people accepted the need to ensure we could support people in need of social welfare. There is also the context of the overall reduction in expenditure of €153 million in a total budget of €21.3 billion. People who wish to be fair-minded about this recognise the huge demands that exist on the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Rather than cut the rates, the fairest way of dealing with it was to specifically examine an area-----

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