Sinn Féin will not commit to an increase in the pension payment in their general election manifesto.

The party today launched a charter for older people outlining how it would support pensioners if elected to government.

The charter includes no cuts to the State pension, and a reversal of the reductions to the telephone allowance and fuel allowance.

However, asked whether the party would increase the pension payment, deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said the focus was to ensure all those entitled to it could access it.

Partial payment

She said: “The issue is that people in increasing numbers are not entitled to a full pension payment. We know in dealing with people right across the State that increasing numbers of people are getting partial payment.

“Our first priority is to make sure people are entitled to the full pension as it is and then we want, in the course of the next Dáil and the next government, we want an assessment of all social welfare payments including pensions with an eye to a decent standard of living.”

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin has committed to abolishing the water charges and the property tax and that would offer a level of relief to older citizens.

A spokesman for the party confirmed it is not ruling out a pension increase in the future but it is not committed to an increase yet.

The Labour Party has proposed an increase to the weekly State pension of almost €5 if re-elected. A similar raise would be added each year.

This would see pensioners receive about €257 a week by the end of the next government’s five-year term in office.

The party is due to hold its ardfheis in Dublin’s Convention Centre on April 22nd-23rd, on the eve of the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

Defending the decision to hold the ardfheis on those dates, Ms McDonald said: “You might more properly say that having the ardfheiseanna run through January is a cynical attempt to grab a bit of attention ahead of an election if you were to address that question to the other parties.

“We will celebrate this centenary fully, inclusively; we celebrate it as Irish republicanism and the weekend of our ardfheis will mark to the day almost the centenary of the Rising and of Easter week,” she said.

Television coverage

The party decided against holding its ardfheis before the general election as they risked missing out on television coverage if Enda Kenny announced a date before that.

Ms McDonald added: “Those that accuse us of trying to wipe their eye or to take possession of the legacy of the Rising - it seems only a concern for them this year; we have celebrated and commemorated Easter and everything that the Proclamation means every single year.”