Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The proposal is also an insult to people such as pensioners in terms of the relatively modest amount they receive, which I wish as a country we had the resources to improve. We were able to partially restore the Christmas bonus by way of this year's budget. The reality of what Senator Cullinane is suggesting, even if from the best of motives, is that some people in the social welfare system would not get the increases they need or would go short because some people would be repaying significant sums of money at the rate of only €2 per week.