Burton says ‘core’ welfare benefits left alone

Core social welfare rates will be maintained in the budget, the social protection minister has said.

However, Joan Burton, who hosted a pre-budget forum for 31 voluntary and community organisations in Dublin yesterday, did not say what core social welfare rates would be kept.

“I can’t, unfortunately, clarify anything until I sit around a big table with the rest of my colleagues in the Cabinet and a collective agreement is taken [on] the changes in social welfare.