THE CHRISTMAS welfare bonus of a double week's payment will be made this year, despite the difficult financial position facing the exchequer, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin announced yesterday.
She said the Government was anxious to support the most vulnerable people in society, particularly those who were dependent on social welfare.
"It is €200 million extra and it means that people who are on pensions, widows, lone parents, long term unemployed will all get that payment around the first week of December to help them plan for Christmas," said the Minister.
She said the Government had agreed to give the 100 per cent bonus again this Christmas because it had been paid over the last eight years and people had come to expect it.
"I am glad that we are in a position again this year to give it," she said on RTÉ's News at One yesterday.
She said the payment had been factored into Government spending because a decision had been taken that the people involved were the ones that deserved support.
"These are people who have lost their jobs, they are people with families, people who are elderly, people who are widowed and this is the money they depend on."
Labour Party spokeswoman on social and family affairs Róisín Shortall welcomed the Minister's announcement but said the failure of the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, to provide answers on the issue in the Dáil last week had created real anxiety among those dependent on social welfare.
