Mr Twomey says the average family income is keeping pace with the cost of living.

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When he left prison, MacStiofain was reprimanded and replaced in March, 1973, by Seamus Twomey.

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The couple were transferred to hospital in the Irish Republic a month after the crash, but Mr Twomey died on Saturday.

BBC: Con Twomey dies 10 months after Torquay car crash

One of the Pope's former students, Fr Vincent Twomey, has said the Pope did not look well the last time he saw him.

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Con Twomey was on holiday with his pregnant wife and their 16-month-old son when the collision happened on Hamelin Way in Torquay last July.

BBC: Con Twomey dies 10 months after Torquay car crash

Mr Twomey did not recover from the multiple injuries he sustained in the crash and died early on Saturday morning at Cork University Hospital.

BBC: Con Twomey dies 10 months after Torquay car crash

He also said that at a gathering of the Pope's former doctoral students last summer, Fr Twomey said the Pope was very alert, but very "tired-looking".

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI

Mr Twomey's wife, Elber, also lost her unborn baby.

BBC: Con Twomey dies 10 months after Torquay car crash

Speaking on Irish state broadcaster Rates' News at One, Fr Twomey, the Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at NUI Maynooth, said he was shocked at the Pope's resignation, but in hindsight he had given "some signals" in an interview last year.

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