Mr. Frank Maughan:

To clarify my previous response to Senator Boylan, the proposed allocation takes into account different poverty indicators. I listed them and they are also contained in the scrutiny note the Department submitted to the committee. The reference to 1% was only to indicate that, as a share of Ireland's proposed allocation, such a figure is broadly equivalent to our share of the population of the EU. To clarify, it is in no way how the proposed allocation was calculated.

Some of the issues raised by the Deputy are questions of policy and I will not be able to respond to them in the way that the Deputy has requested. I recall, though, that the programme for Government has a statement regarding the use of carbon tax revenues over the coming decade and the decision taken in the context of budget 2021 to introduce several changes to social welfare supports as a direct response to the increase in the rate of carbon tax in that budget. Those changes included increases in qualifying child payments, living alone allowances and fuel allowances and they were introduced specifically to respond to the increase in the rate of carbon tax, with a specific intention to counteract the effects in different household types. They were based on an analysis undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, prior to the budget. Those interventions, if I can term them that, were made in the context of budget 2021 and the programme for Government has a statement of policy concerning how increases in the rate of carbon tax in future years will be dealt with through similar mechanisms.