Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Recent Cost-of-Living Measures: Discussion

Mr. John Kinnane:

In the package of measures that was introduced in February and, subsequently, in April, the focus has been to use the fuel allowance to provide targeted support. Obviously, the fuel allowance is a means-tested payment and, therefore, as Mr. O'Connor suggested, the support can be targeted at the lower income deciles. The key with trying to implement these measures in February and subsequently was to do so quickly. The energy credit was a broad-based payment that provided some support to everybody. Given that the legislation had been published, increasing it to €200 inclusive of VAT, or about €176 net, could be done quickly. The legislation had been published and could be enacted quickly, with the funding put in place. Likewise, the fuel allowance was a means of quickly getting these bullet payments, of €125 in March and €100 subsequently, to people in the lower income deciles. In the budget, there was a €5 per week increase for all working-age payments and pension payments, and there was an increase in the qualified child payment of €2 for under-12s and €3 for over-12s. Furthermore, there were increases in the living alone allowance and the working family payment. These were all put through SWITCH, the distributional analysis, which showed they were effective in providing income to the lower income deciles. That is the type of support that can be very effective.

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