Welfare changes `inadequate' for the poor

Mr Richard O'Leary believes the £8 (€10.16) rise in weekly social welfare payments was "mean".

An unemployed chef from Buttevant, Co Cork, Mr O'Leary said the increase would enable him to buy a bag of coal and no more. "They gave the bare amount, the minimum they could give."

The £4 rise in weekly social welfare payments last year was sufficient only to compensate unemployed people for inflation, he said. "By actually giving that rise at that time, they might as well have not given it."

Mr O'Leary (47) said his weekly payment would rise to £90 from £82 following the fourth Budget introduced by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. Mr O'Leary's wife, Eileen, receives a disability allowance - her weekly payment will rise to £64 from £56.

Of the £833 million spent by Mr McCreevy, Mr O'Leary said: "With that amount of money he could have brought it [the weekly social welfare payment increase] up to £10 . . . Put in that context, it's a very mean kind of a rise."

Mr O'Leary and his wife have three children, but only their 16-year-old daughter still lives at home. "If you're unemployed, you're looked on as lazy, or you should be out working, or there's something wrong with you," he said. "You're part of a category which doesn't fit in. It sounds a bit strong but I've been through it."

He did not believe retailers would pass on the benefit of the 1 per cent VAT reduction.