Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It will be announced next Tuesday by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Donohoe and Noonan. Fine Gael committed to a €5 per week increase in the pension and, as part of our confidence and supply arrangement with Fianna Fail, provision will be made for an increase in the pension. No decision has been made on the exact amount. What I have said today is significant as I mean it. We cannot have a position in the budget whereby pensioners get an increase in the weekly payment but the disabled, carers, the blind, widows under 66, lone parents and people on invalidity pension get nothing. Taking them as a group, they are worse off than pensioners. I am trying to square that circle and make sure there is something in it for those very vulnerable people.

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