Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Is léir ón méid atá déanta againn go dtí seo an bhliain seo caite agus na blianta roimhe sin go bhfuilimid sásta mar Rialtas an-chuid tacaíocht agus cabhair a thabhairt do phinsinéirí na tíre seo i ngach aon tslí is féidir linn. Táimid chun é sin a dhéanamh arís sa bhuiséad atá le teacht. Tá sé suimiúil go bhfuil an Teachta ag léamh na bpáipéar nuachtáin lá i ndiaidh lae. Caithfidh sé a bheith amhrasach chomh maith. The Deputy should not believe everything he reads in the newspapers or hang his hat on every report. The reports in respect of the old-age pension, I suggest, may not be accurate at all. I worry about the Deputy's decrying of commentary on the budget or briefings and leakage because he was once a person who advocated very strongly for full transparency from the Government in relation to all measures under consideration. I jest.
There will be a lot of briefing, as there always is before budgets, and speculation and so on but the bottom line is that we are conscious of the cost of living. We are conscious of the impact on a whole range of people. If you look at the social protection budget over the last number of years, it has grown exponentially. We are close to a budget of €2 billion. Last year we concentrated on the carer's disregard and the €10 increase in the old-age pension was well above inflation. We also did significant work on child support payments to deal with child poverty. We saw the largest increases on record there, and in the back-to-school clothing allowances. We also extended the free fuel. The Minister is looking at other ways, in addition to the pension, of helping pensioners in the forthcoming budget. He will be bringing forward proposals in that regard on budget day.
What I would say to the Deputy is, do not believe the reports in the newspapers in respect of pensions because they may not turn out to be accurate. Outside of the pensions, other supports that we introduce through social protection, and through taxation for some pensioners, will be very beneficial to them. We believe strongly in a strong social safety network. We believe strongly in supporting pensioners and over the last six years we have demonstrated that in successive budgets the last Government and this Government have introduced. If you compare our social protection budget with those of comparable member states across the European Union, you will find that we are up there in the top tier of social welfare distribution, the GNI co-efficient and so on. We have a good story to tell in respect of that as a country.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30