Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Progress has been made in recent years in securing the position of older people in Irish society. Increases in the State pension (contributory) have brought the personal rate of pension to a maximum weekly rate up to â'¬230.30 per week. A pensioner couple would be eligible for a weekly income of â'¬436.60. These pension increases exceeded increases in prices over the period so that significant improvements were made in real terms in pension rates.

In Budget 2010, the Government avoided any cuts in the State pension. Weekly rates of payments to pensioners (those 66 and over) were not reduced and neither were other supports such as the Household Benefits package which includes the free TV licence, electricity/gas allowance and telephone allowance. The living alone and over 80 allowances were also retained at existing levels. In 2010 nearly â'¬4.53 billion has been made available to support over 400,000 pensioners.

The maximum weekly rates of State pension (contributory), together with details of the consumer price index for the years 1997 to date are detailed in the table below;