Quinn told twins are more than two singles

YOU'D think anyone who called their organisation POTI must have a sense of humour, but Ms Mairead Hilliard of Parents of Twins Ireland was in no mood for laughing when she tackled the Minister for Finance on The Pat Kenny Show yesterday.

Mr Quinn had been fielding the usual collection of personal queries and disgruntled callers without great difficulty. Then came, Ms Hilliard.

The Government was discriminating against twins by treating them as two single births for social welfare purposes, she said. To her unconcealed annoyance, triplets and quads get double payments thus, triplets receive child benefit, of £162 a month while twins get only £54.

Mr Quinn reminded her of the increase in the grant on the birth of twins from £200 to £500, and new payments of £500 when, twins reached the age of four and 12.

After all, this was the measure that reduced grown men to tears (of laughter, albeit) during his Budget speech in the Dail.

But Ms Hilliard said it was unacceptable. What about twins who were not four years old, or 127 The idea had been "shoved together" in the past few days, she claimed. By treating twins differently from other multiple births, the Minister was being selective.

Mr Quinn "I'm not being selective. You are being reactive. Do you want me to cancel the extra money?" Ms Hilliard replied "You can do what you like, but it's unacceptable" before Pat Kenny pulled the plug.

The rest of the programme was calmer. Mr Quinn explained his proposals for getting the long term unemployed back to work, but drew a sceptical reaction from callers who either felt they wouldn't work or resented the Government for spending more money on the unemployed.

One caller said Ruairi was "mean" to increase the tax on ATM cards when the Government had pushed public service workers to use them for salary purposes. The Minister said the tax was in compensation for a dramatic fall off in revenue from chequebooks.

Mr Quinn explained that the extra thruppence on a litre of super plus unleaded petrol was because it was "bad for the environment I don't understand why, but I'm told this is so," he admitted candidly. He also asked for suggestions to make next year's Bud environmentally friendly.

"Tax relief for bus fares" suggested Pat. When you see him on the 46A, you know who to thank.