Cyprian Brady (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Ireland is in the position that more is going out than is coming in. It is like any household - one cannot spend what one does not have. The Department and the Minister have come out early and been upfront about this. Nobody likes making changes to people's daily lives and their income by making cuts that have become essential if we are to provide a top-class social welfare system for the most vulnerable people in the country. That the Minister has come out so early gives people a chance to budget in whatever way they can take account of the change that will take place at Christmas.

This is a bonus payment. I worked in employment exchanges in the early 1980s where there was no such thing as a Christmas bonus. People were on very low payments, whether on assistance or benefit, invalidity or disability benefit. That has changed dramatically over the past ten years. Child benefit has increased from €44 ten years ago to €166 per month now.

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