Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not think members of the Technical Group were there, but Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin Deputies supported an increase of €680 million in a Supplementary Estimate to increase the overall social welfare spend in 2012 to fund payments made to persons such as carers. I thanked Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin for supporting the Estimate. The Estimate for next year means that the spend will increase. I want Deputy Michael Lowry, when he makes comments about the economy in general, to take into account the fact that a sum of €20.2 billion will be spent. We support programmes in all Departments. It will be one of the highest amounts spent in Europe.

See this speech in context