My Budget:Good but not good enough. That's pensioner Albert Connor's verdict on what the Budget delivered for older people.
Mr Connor welcomed the increases in contributory pensions to €€209.30 per week and non-contributory pensions to €200 per week.
"But pensions started from a low base, so it's good but not good enough," he said.
"The increase in the tax band for old people to €19,000 for single and €38,000 for married couples is welcome, but it still doesn't take much to put you into the tax band."
However, Mr Connor was pleased with the Minister's decision to remove the over-65s from paying Dirt on savings.
"The fact is most older people are not into long-term savings schemes. They want their money to be reasonably well available but standard deposit accounts over the past number of years gave very low returns. But small and all as the interest paid was, you paid Dirt. So this is a step in the right direction. It's very good not to have Dirt deducted," he said.
The impact of the 50 cent rise on a packet of cigarettes on inflation was a concern, he said. Wage demands in the future will take higher inflation into account and this will impact on the prices of other goods and services for everyone and especially older people and the less well-off, according to Mr Connor.
"Wage demands affect everybody because it drives up costs across the board," he said.
While the reduction of the top rate of tax by 1 per cent to 41 per cent was welcome, Mr Connor feels it would have been better if the Minister had reduced some indirect taxes.
"If the Minister had put the same amount of savings into one of the indirect taxes, it would have been much more beneficial to the less well-off," said Mr Connor.