€5 pension hike in grey vote battle

Auction politics heat up as FF follows Ross ‘Granny ‘Grant’

FIANNA Fáil is demanding another €5 increase to the State pension as the auction politics ramps up.

The battle for the grey vote is hotting up with a general election expected in the next year.

Government ministers are pouring cold water on hopes of another €5-for-all in October’s budget.

But Independent Minister Shane Ross wants his €1,000 granny grant for childcare assistance.

And now Fianna Fáil social welfare spokesman Willie O’Dea is demanding welfare payments, apart from the dole, be increased by €5.

Mr O’Dea said he would be “very slow” to support a Budget that did not include a €5 pension increase.

“For the vast majority of pensioners, their main income is their pension,” he told the Irish Independent.

Social welfare payments, including the pension, dole and carers allowances went up by €5 this year.

Meanwhile, Mr Ross said he hasn’t seen “any push back at all” from Fine Gael on his €1,000 plan.

THE grandmothers and Bingo players at the National Stadium in Dublin city were curious about Shane Ross’ proposed €1,000-a-year ‘Granny Grant’.

While welcoming it, most felt there was a lack of information about the grant – which aims to reward the role grandparents play as childminders.

Grandmother Anne McGinn, from Baldoyle, Co Dublin, looks after her grandson Charlie (5) regularly to help her daughter Angela, who has just qualified as a general nurse. “Would you lose some of your State pension with this grant?” she asked.

“You’d expect something like that. It’s always been a case of if the Government gives something to people, it takes it away with the other hand. I want to see the finer details of this plan as there has been barely any information about it.

“But I’m a firm believer you don’t get something for nothing in this world.

Carmel Smullen, from Dublin 7, and a grandmother to 11 children ranging in age from two-weeks-old to 25-years-old, also shared this concern.

“I don’t believe the granny grant,” she said. “I’d have to see it before I believed it. I think... if the Government gave something to pensioners, they’d want to take it away again, from the State pension or something else.

“They’d take to give. In theory, the grant is a good idea but I really don’t believe Shane Ross or the Independents have thought about how it will work.”

The retired printer, brought up four of her own children and Smullen childminds several of her grandchildren in the afternoon.

“It does take up your day and you can’t just make plans, as you have to think of the children.

“But I’m their grandmother and I wouldn’t change my life. I love having the children, they bring me a lot of happiness.”

She attended the bingo with her 19-year-old granddaughter Shannon Whelan, and says she is extremely close to her grandchildren.

Marian O’Keeffe (49), from Ballyfermot, attended with her mother, Anne Stanley – who minded her son Gavin (21) when he was small.

Though the grant is ‘too late’ for this family to benefit, they still had an opinion.

“I couldn’t have gone to work, paid my mortgage, if it hadn’t been for my mum minding my son,” Marian said.

“I know what an important duty grandmothers supply because of the support I got and I am still thankful for that today, so I think the idea of the grant, is a really good one. But the public would need to know the substance behind this, to see how much value there really is in it.”

Kay Conlon (78), from Walkinstown, Dublin, is a grandmother-of-seven and great-grandmother of two children, Isabelle (4) and Charlie (5).

She described looking after the children in her life as “a labour of love”. “My grandchildren were very good to me, as I was to them.” Ms Conlon said. “I love them to bits. And when I looked after my grandchildren, it allowed their parents to work for their mortgages. And I never minded doing it.

“I didn’t get recognition and I didn’t need it because grandmothers want to spend time with their grandchildren.

“And now the time I spent with them is paying dividends because they are there for me and look after me too. I think the idea of a grant for grandparents is a good idea but it’s not something we need. Being a grandmother is a special job and one that no amount of money could reward.”

Grandmother-of-two Elizabeth Tighe (55), from Dublin city centre, is waiting to greet her third grandchild.

Her daughter, Deborah is expecting and Elizabeth is looking forward to the new addition to the family.

“I see my grandchildren everyday,” Elizabeth said. “The grant would be brilliant. It’s not a lot of money but it is something and some kind of recognition that grandparents help parents go to work and avoid huge childcare costs.

“I think minding grandchildren is part of our role as grandparents but if the Government wants to show it is an important role, I think why not provide this grant to people.”

‘I’m a firm believer that you don’t get something for nothing in this world’