The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Dermot Ahern, was last night under intense pressure to withdraw an instruction which could deprive thousands of the poorest welfare recipients of a Christmas bonus worth £50-£70.
Mr Ahern and his officials spent yesterday trying to defuse anger at a departmental circular which says no Christmas Bonus should be paid to people who have been receiving the supplementary welfare allowance for less than a year.
"A Christmas Bonus should not be paid to persons who are in payment less than 12 months," the document says.
Health board sources say this means virtually nobody on the supplementary welfare allowance will qualify.
Departmental officials attempted to limit the damage done by the revelation of the instruction, arguing that the phrase "a Christmas Bonus should not be paid" did not really mean a bonus should not be paid, so long as potential recipients could show their circumstances warranted it. The Minister, Mr Dermot Ahern, said in a statement yesterday that his officials "have been in contact with the Health Boards to make this abundantly clear to avoid any possible misunderstanding about the matter."
Any hope the Minister had that this would be the end of the matter was dashed when the largest board involved - the Eastern Health Board - said the circular stated that a 70 per cent bonus was to be paid to people who had been on the supplementary welfare allowance for more than a year and that "the Eastern Health Board will abide by this circular".
The EHB said that in the past it had paid a 100 per cent bonus to anyone who had been on the SWA for more than three months.
The EHB's stance means it will be refusing Christmas bonuses to most applicants from Monday. The Southern Health Board said last night that "we are currently seeking further clarification from the Department regarding this circular."
Fine Gael last night said the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs was not legally entitled to issue the instruction in the circular. Its social welfare spokesman, Mr Jim O'Keeffe - who revealed the existence of the circular - called on Mr Ahern, to withdraw it before Monday.
Estimates of the number of people who could lose out range from 2,000 to 10,000.
Those affected are receiving one of the lowest of all welfare payments, designed as a "safety net" for those who do not qualify for any other payment. The supplementary welfare allowance is £68.40 a week for an adult, £41.20 for an adult dependant and £13.20 for a child.
The controversy emerged on a day when the Taoiseach made a major speech in Dublin urging officials to make greater effort to deal with poverty. Mr Bertie Ahern said relief of poverty was one of the State's main aims and despite the health of the economy "we must ask why we are not making a better fist of it".