Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Any cut to the income of the most vulnerable in our society and communities is bad but this is made worse at Christmas, as we are talking about people on the lowest income who are barely surviving. They are not living, they are just surviving. As Deputy Naughten said, families who want some kind of Christmas will be driven to moneylenders as a consequence. It also has a knock-on effect of taking money from the local economy, which will affect small retailers and inevitably lead to job losses.

Low income families and people on social welfare spend every ha'penny in their economy. We could proceed differently by taking this small amount of money from the higher income avenues. That would protect the most vulnerable in our society.

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