‘Merit’ in tempering unemployment benefit increases, Harris says

There is “merit” in unemployment benefit not rising at the same rate as other social welfare payments, the Tanaiste has said.

Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said that he was not convinced there was a need for a “significant rise in the dole”, when the country is at near full employment, compared with pension rises.

He said he was keeping an “open mind” in relation to Budgetary measures, saying there is “only so much money in the pot”.

He was speaking amid a Government row over student fee changes.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr Harris said: “I do always think there’s merit in not looking at social welfare payments with a uniformity across the board because, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about college fees in the last couple of days, unexpectedly perhaps.

“But roughly speaking, the equivalent of 1.20/1.25 euro on every social welfare payment is roughly the equivalent of reducing the college fees by 1,000 euro.

“So budgets are all about choices, they’re all about balance, and there’s only so much money in the pot.”

He added: “I’m not convinced that you need to see as significant a rise in the dole as you do in the pension, for example, at a time when our country is in full employment, when there’s lots of supports out there for people getting into work, when there’s other supports out there for people who can’t work for very many good reasons.

“That’s my view. We’ll thrash all this out in the Budget.”