John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I was out last night in Mullinavat and I spoke to a pensioner who has voted Fianna Fáil all her life. While she will probably continue to vote for that party, I will work for her to the best of my ability. She spoke to me last night about the great fanfare in the last budget to the effect that pensioners were to receive €10 extra and of the withdrawal at the same time of the €9 fuel allowance. The real increase was €1 but Senator Mansergh did not mention that fact during his remarks on the large increases for pensioners. While pensioners are better off in terms of the sums they receive, the capacity of the money to purchase the services they require has dwindled dramatically over the course of the last few years.