Axing the social welfare Christmas bonus has been branded shameful and mean after the Taoiseach flatly refused to reverse the cut.

Brian Cowen claimed the country could not afford the 223 million euro payout, scrapped in April's emergency budget.

But Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore hit out at the Taoiseach saying the elderly were shouldering the burden of Fianna Fail's economic mismanagement.

"This is a payment that has been paid to pensioners every year for 30 years, even in some of the most difficult economic years that the country has had," Mr Gilmore told the Dail.

"It is a measure of the mess that Fianna Fail has made of our economy and of our public finances that we now find ourselves in a situation that for the first time in 30 years pensioners will not get the small bonus that has been paid to them in years past."

He added: "I think it is mean and I think it is shameful, Taoiseach."

The Christmas Bonus is paid to a range of social welfare recipients, including pensioners, long-term jobseekers, carers and those on disability.

Mr Cowen claimed welfare had been increased in previous budgets beyond inflation, repeating the Government mantra that the gap between spending and the amount taken in was closing.

He said the cost of living had fallen by 6.5% this year, boosting pensioners' spending power.

The Taoiseach said he was reluctant to go-ahead with the plan but the social welfare budget could not be immune from cutbacks.