Leo Varadkar says adding a fiver to the Old Age Pension wasn’t a Fianna Fáil idea.

The Social Protection Minister says Fine Gael is still deciding what’ll be in the Budget, despite claims that Micheál Martin’s party is dictating terms.

The Government says there may be as much as one and a half billion Euro extra to spend this year.

Minister Varadkar has denied that Fine Gael is being told how to spend it: “No I wouldn’t accept that.

” First of all nothing is agreed if anything is agreed, I am still in negotation, but, there was a Fine Gael manifesto commitment for a €5 increase in the pension.

“€5 every year for the next five years and obviously I would like to be able to secure that.

“But there are other things I would like to do too. I want to do something for the self-employed, extend more social protection to them and that is my own key priority.

Meanwhile an all-party group of TDs has asked the government to bring forward plans for a tax on vacant sites.

The Dáil’s Budgetary Oversight Committee says the measure could be implemented earlier than the current plan of 2019.

The group of 15 TDs says introducing it before then would give land owners an incentive to develop it for housing.

It is also asked for the government to state clearly how it proposes to bridge the €4bn gap created if USC is scrapped entirely.