{"id":788084,"date":"2026-10-01T02:50:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788084\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T02:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:50:22","slug":"taoiseach-tells-social-democrats-reports-of-e7-50-pension-increase-may-not-be-true-at-all-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788084\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach tells Social Democrats reports of \u20ac7.50 pension increase \u2018may not be true at all\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposed \u20ac7.50 rise in the State pension would be a \u201cpaltry increase which doesn\u2019t even keep pace with inflation\u201d, the D\u00e1il<\/a> heard a week ahead of Budget 2027<\/a> as speculation continued about what measures it would contain.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan said leaks about the \u20ac7.50 pension increase had been \u201cnotably consistent\u201d but it would be a \u201cclear betrayal\u201d of pensioners by Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael. <\/p>\n

In the last election \u201cyou made a firm commitment to increase the State pension to \u20ac350 a week over the lifetime of your Government\u201d, he told Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il \u201cwent even further\u201d and \u201cyou said you would increase core social welfare payments by at least \u20ac12 a week\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said pensioners were relying on the Taoiseach to keep his word. Last year pensions \u201cwere only increased by \u20ac10 and now it looks like you will be betraying pensioners again”.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach told him reports about pension increases \u201cmay not be accurate at all\u201d. <\/p>\n

He stressed \u201cwe\u2019re conscious of the cost of living, conscious of the impact on a whole range of people\u201d. The social protection budget had grown exponentially to close to \u20ac2 billion and \u20ac10 \u201cwas well above inflation for the old-age pension\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said \u201cleaks on the budget aren\u2019t coming from the Opposition, they\u2019re coming from the Government\u201d. <\/p>\n

The headlines \u201chave pensioners worried sick\u201d and he asked if it was a \u201ccynical ploy to manage expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n

That amount would \u201ctip a huge number of older people \u2013 many of whom are already barely scraping to get by \u2013 into poverty\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said pensioners are \u201cvery anxious and upset\u201d at the reported increase. \u201cThe price of their food shop is going up every other week, and their energy bills are through the roof. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany are living in fear of the coming winter because they have no idea how they are going to keep themselves warm.\u201d <\/p>\n

Their budgets were \u201calready stretched to the limit\u201d and the Government is preparing to \u201cdeal them another hammer blow\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027: I don\u2019t know what a tax band is …Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"SocialSocial Democrats deputy leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins Photo Agency <\/p>\n

The Dublin Bay North TD called on the Taoiseach to either \u201cstick to your word\u201d and provide a \u20ac12 increase or follow the Social Democrats\u2019 alternative budget and award a \u20ac15 increase.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach reiterated reports in the newspapers about pensions \u201cmay not turn out to be accurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOther supports that we introduce through social protection\u201d and through taxation would be \u201cvery beneficial\u201d for pensioners.<\/p>\n

He insisted \u201cwe believe strongly in a strong social safety network\u201d and in supporting pensioners and had done that in successive budgets in the last six years.<\/p>\n

Martin added that Ireland is in the \u201ctop tier\u201d across the EU \u201cin terms of social welfare distribution\u201d.<\/p>\n

He insisted they \u201cwill fulfil the programme for government over the lifetime of this Government\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the programme, the Government promised to \u201cprogressively increase pension payments\u201d.<\/p>\n

Later the Taoiseach told Independent TD Mattie McGrath it would make no sense to stop the carbon tax. <\/p>\n

If the tax goes below a certain threshold, \u201cyou then have to pay carbon tax to Europe\u201d and that made no sense because the carbon tax \u201cis used for farmers, it\u2019s used for the retrofitting and the energy saving measures\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Tipperary South TD said home heating oil had more than doubled in price. The carbon tax \u201cmust be halted, not paused\u201d and there must be further \u201cimmediate supports\u201d for fuel and home heating oil.<\/p>\n

Fuel supports provided by Government are \u201clike snow off a ditch, they\u2019re gone. There\u2019s no impact at all from them\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027: Staggered introduction of childcare fee reductions under reviewOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed \u20ac7.50 rise in the State pension would be a \u201cpaltry increase which doesn\u2019t even keep pace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[458,84,123629,1710,4176,1711,6723,4174,4175,157578,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-dail-eireann","tag-fianna-fail","tag-finance","tag-fine-gael","tag-micheal-martin","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-social-democrats","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}