Ministers have defended the coalition Government’s track record of closing the pay gap in Ireland between the wealthiest and the most vulnerable to the rising cost of living, reports Breaking News.
Although they acknowledged that the Government has achieved progress while in office, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys and Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman asserted that there is still more the State can do to assist individuals.
According to Ms. Humphreys, she thinks the government has focused its assistance on the most vulnerable.
“We will continue to look at the most vulnerable in this budget as we have done in the past, and we know there is always more to do,” she remarked.
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“It has been a progressively good budget over the term of this Government, I would say. Every year we’ve seen unprecedented increases in social welfare payments, 24 euros over the past two years, that’s a considerable increase when you add all that on top of the lump sums where the data shows that we are keeping pace with inflation and in some cases ahead of it,” the Fine Gael TD for Cavan-Monaghan said, reports Breaking News.
According to Mr. O’Gorman, the government has been “wise” in how it has spent money and has put money away for any future economic downturns.
He continued by saying that there isn’t a locality in west Dublin, his own seat, or north Monaghan where more could be done to help people.
“First thing to say is we can always do more and I think as politicians we always want to do more,” he said, reports Breaking News.
“You’re working within budgetary constraints. But I think we have done a very significant amount over the last four years. We’ve targeted investment in disadvantage, in terms of the work I’ve done in terms of Equal Start, for example, the DEIS model for early years; the work Heather has done in terms of supporting school meals in schools, initially DEIS schools, but then rolling it out more generally; the work I’ve done to make childcare affordable for all families, and the work I’ve spoken about earlier on in supporting families in those early years (education),” he added, reports Breaking News.
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