Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The only instruction that we have at the moment is to reduce the social welfare budget. It has not been predetermined as to how that is going to be done. When I say that it leads to a debate, I mean that it allows discussion at Government level and in here to take place, in the knowledge of what people are getting, how many of them are getting it, and so on. The fact that a 5% or 3% cut is recommended in the McCarthy report has resulted in a panic being created throughout the country. There are 600 groups that receive grants from the Family Support Agency, and they are all writing in to me in a panic.

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