Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the point relating to the core weekly payments, the single largest proportion of the Department's expenditure relates to pensions and the next largest relates to widows and widowers. Of the €19.6 billion the Department will spend this year, €6.5 billion, or 32%, exclusively relates to pensions. If anyone is suggesting that protecting the core weekly rate of the pension is not important, I urge them to think again.

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