Dáil debates

Wednesday, 21 November 2018

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

 

12:45 pm

Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In recent budgets the Government increased the minimum wage and social welfare payments by €5 per week. The budgets also saw the USC ceiling and PRSI thresholds increased to ensure that the increases the Government was paying to people were received. That was good insofar as it went. The increases were modest and welcome but they did not make people wealthy. Largely, they meant that the people who received those increases were keeping pace with the increased costs they were meeting in their daily lives. However, other income thresholds across other grants and schemes have not kept pace with changes. In particular, the student grant scheme has not gone up. The same applies to thresholds for medical cards, the GP card and the over 70s card.

Will the Taoiseach review income thresholds across all Departments for grants and schemes to ensure they increase in line with budget day announcements and increases? If a person gets an increase in social welfare payments that is modest but loses a medical card or fails to get a third-level grant, he or she is at a big loss. That is the problem we must address.

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