Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect, I benefited from many of those packages, as did the Minister. We benefit from the Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 that is going through the Houses through reduced VAT, excise measures and the household electricity credit, which took a large portion of the additional money that was provided. We are talking about people who are really vulnerable, trying to get by on really small, fixed incomes and are not, according to the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, anywhere near where they need to be with regard to a minimum standard of income to survive. The data in the Minister's document show that people are 4% worse off than they were last year. If he knew when preparing the budget last year that inflation this year would be 6.2%, I am sure he would not have just added €5 to the core social welfare rates. That would have been inadequate. We know that now, so we need to address it now.