Some 44,395 people in Tipperary will begin to receive the Christmas Bonus from Monday for the first time since 2009.
This is an example of how local people are beginning to share in the economic recovery.
The payment is being paid to recipients from Monday and throughout the week. Groups that will benefit include pensioners, long-term welfare recipients, and those on Carers Allowance, Carers Benefit, Disability Allowance, One-Parent Family Payment, Blind Pension, and many others.
In the past, the Christmas Bonus was always a vital payment for households during what was an expensive time of year. It provided pensioners and those on fixed incomes with a helping hand, and the decision by Fianna Fail to scrap it in 2009 was a particularly mean one.
Good news on the jobs front, a pick-up in consumer sentiment and the general improved economic situation means that the Government was in a position in the Budget to partially reinstate the payment by 25%. We are hopeful, that as the recovery continues, that it will be restored even further.
Tánaiste Joan Burton is determined to ensure that people begin to share in the recovery, and this is an example of how that is happening. The restoration of the Christmas bonus starts now, and I am pleased that people in Tipperary will benefit from this. It forms part of a suite of new measures introduced that are designed to support working families, older people and those on low and middle incomes.