Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Given the fact that Ms Callaghan is talking about €1 billion going into the housing assistance payment and so forth, I would be concerned about how sustainable that is in the long term. Obviously, I hope all those houses get built and that people who come to me end up in homes they are not worried they will have to leave. At this stage, many people would be quite concerned about the amount of money that is being spent on that. I will take Ms Callaghan's point in that regard, however.

There are two matters I wish to address. Ms Callaghan mentioned in her opening statement the issue of one-off payments as part of the cost-of-living package. I wondered about the likes of those payments that are recurring in nature. One thing I have not really fully understood since being here is the Christmas bonus, which is recurring but is seen as a surprise every year. I have pointed out that this has been a recurring measure since 2014 but it is classified as a once-off payment. Obviously, I understand that gives flexibility in that it can be withdrawn if there is a crisis. What is the Department's view of continuing it is a once-off payment rather than realising it is recurring? It is just kind of announced as something on budget day when everybody really knows it is a recurring payment. I would also argue that it speaks to short-term solutions being used for more longer-term problems. The general inadequacies of the social welfare system are these kinds of one-off payments that are really recurring things. We rely on them to have something to announce on budget day.