State pension increase
Deputy Grealish relayed campaign calls for the State pension to rise to 34% of average industrial earnings. The Minister said budget demands would be numerous, refused any commitment before the pre-budget forum, and noted previous support for pensioners through fuel allowance and lump sums.
Last Monday, I, along with my colleague, Deputy Canney, met Age Action, the National Women's Council of Ireland, the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament, Active Retirement Ireland and SIPTU regarding their pension promise campaign. These organisations have united to seek a commitment from the Government that the State pension will increase to 34% of the average industrial wage, or €318 per week. The State pension is currently set at a rate of 28% of the average industrial wage and many older people are struggling with the rising cost of living in recent years. The new Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 states: "this Government has committed to the introduction of a system of benchmarking rates of pension payment both to average wages and to inflation." There would be unanimous support in the House for the introduction of that measure. Can the Tánaiste give a commitment that the request to increase the State pension to 34% of the average industrial wage will be honoured in the next three years?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. Of course, there will be a lot of demands between now and October in terms of the budget. I said it before and will say it again this year, there will be a lot of kites flying. I am going to be like an octopus trying to keep them all down.
Comment on this
I would not dream of it. The Department's pre-budget forum will take place on 19 July. I will be meeting all those stakeholders and will hear their views, which the Deputy articulated clearly. He will appreciate that I will not give any commitment today because my good colleagues, the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, would not appreciate any comments I might make. What I can say is that we supported pensioners last year. We expanded the fuel allowance and provided for an increase of €12, as well as all the lump sum payments which equated to approximately €47 per week in total. We were not found wanting last year and pensioners will be a priority again this year.