Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As there will be other speakers, I will not labour the issue but this is a particularly contemptible and pitiless cut. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh stated, people have paid for this benefit, as it is part of that for which one pays one's social insurance. One does not get a bereavement grant unless one satisfies the appropriate contribution conditions but from henceforth, while one will continue to contribute at the same rate - some people have had PRSI extended to income that did not bear it previously - one will experience the gradual erosion of one's benefits. In other words, on the one hand there is the continued burden of increased PRSI and additional PRSI while on the other, there is a gradual erosion of the benefits to which it is meant to give rise.

I deeply resent the Government's explanation for the withdrawal of this bereavement grant or rather its justification for it, when it claims that those who are badly stuck can apply to their community welfare officers.

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