A Minister who proposed providing “double digit” across-the-board increases in weekly welfare payments in the budget says he has not received any “pushback” to the suggestion within Government.
Minister of State for Community Development Joe O’Brien last month publicly called for at least €10 to be added to core benefit payments. He said he has not spoken to Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath about it but there’s “fairly strong acknowledgment in Government that this is a cost-of-living budget and that there is a need to protect those who are most vulnerable”.
He said the most vulnerable to cost of living increases were people on welfare, but acknowledged that “everyone is feeling the pinch”.
The Green Party TD said it made sense to protect those, particularly children, whose lives could be damaged by rampant inflation. Regarding his proposal for an increase of at least €10 to welfare payments, he said: “I haven’t heard any pushback.”
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Mr O’Brien said he would be pressing for an “anti-poverty budget”. He was speaking ahead of the launch of the Government’s Social Inclusion Programme Annual Report at the Mansion House in Dublin.
He was separately asked by reporters about a recent Irish Independent report suggesting that Mr McGrath raised concern at a Government claim that the Metrolink project in Dublin would cost €9.5 billion given that one “extreme case” scenario could see it costing €23 billion.
The €9.5 billion estimate has been identified as the midpoint of a “credible” central scenario price range for the project of between €7.16 billion and €12.25 billion. The Government last week approved the preliminary business case for Metrolink which is to provide a rail link between Swords and Dublin city centre via Dublin Airport by the early 2030s.
Speaking after that announcement, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said he was confident that the cost would be closer to the lower estimate of €7.16 billion. Mr McGrath did not respond directly when asked if he was surprised by Mr Ryan’s comments. He said he fully supports the Government decision to proceed to the planning phase of Metrolink which was based on the assessment of the project to date.
Mr McGrath said that when it comes to major public capital investments “you really don’t have a proper cost estimate until you go to the market”. He said the Government agreed to allow the project to progress into the planning process.
The decision on whether or not to proceed with Metrolink’s construction will not be taken until after subsequent tenders are evaluated.
“I’m always very cautious about placing too much emphasis on pre-tender estimates,” Mr McGrath said. “We know the level of inflation, it’s there at the moment.”
