Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

That is a mean and shameful reply. However, those are not my words. Those are the words of Deputy Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party, when he addressed a question on Leaders' Questions to a former Taoiseach who had abolished that bonus:

This payment has been made to pensioners every year for 30 years, even in some of the country’s most difficult economic years ... for the first time in 30 years pensioners will not get the small bonus which has been paid to them in years past ... The Taoiseach's reply contrasts sharply with his more sympathetic approach to the golden ten yesterday ... They get all the comfort from the Government but pensioners, who worked hard to make the country what it was ... are told they will not receive the small payment which made Christmas worthwhile for many of them. This is mean and shameful.

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