Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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1531. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to provide for a Christmas bonus in 2017 to long-term social welfare recipients; the rate of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36005/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Christmas Bonus was abolished in 2009, partially reintroduced in 2014 with the payment of a 25% Bonus, and increased to a 75% Bonus payment in 2015. Last December, an 85% Bonus was paid to some 1.2 million long-term social welfare recipients, including pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and the long-term unemployed, in recognition of their financial dependence on their social welfare payments for all or most of their income.

The 85% Bonus paid last year cost €221 million.

As the Deputy would be aware, there is no provision in the 2017 Revised Estimates for the payment of a Christmas Bonus. Any decision taken regarding the payment of a Bonus in 2017 and the rate of same will have to be consistent with the legal requirements set out in the Fiscal Responsibility Acts 2012 and 2013, and within the context of achieving the targets set for Ireland by the EU rules.