Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are making political points here. It is never personal. The Senator asked for constructive solutions so I will give her some. The Government could have and should have upped the level of accessibility for the fuel allowance. As I have pointed out for the third time now, a minimum wage couple do not qualify for that allowance. The lowest paid workers in the State do not qualify for it. The Government could have tackled that. Fundamentally, what it could have done and absolutely should have done was insist on matching increases in social welfare to the increases in carbon tax. That is what it could have done and should have done but it did not do it.