Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

-----they want to oppose everything. The amendment will affect new claimants; it will not affect existing claimants. There was scaremongering in some of the contributions I heard rather than giving the good and positive message that all basic rates will be maintained, unlike what happened in the past two years. There is not a cut of €8 or €8.30 a week, the size of the cuts Fianna Fáil made to basic rates on which most rely.

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