Mr. Niall Egan:

I agree with Deputy Ó Cuív on the issues he has raised. He is absolutely right. If social welfare rates do not keep pace with inflation, the consequences are as he articulated. However, the poverty rates here are a bit more nuanced than just inflation. What we witnessed in 2021 and 2022 was a big increase in employment as well. That would have also increased the median income. Coming out of the pandemic, more people would have seen their income rising as they went back to work. We started opening up the economy in 2021 on foot of the pandemic so that is also a factor here. We did increase social welfare rates in 2021 and social welfare rates are very effective at reducing poverty rates. Ours are some of the most effective in Europe at reducing poverty rates. I would agree with the principle of the point the Deputy is making but I would also point out that we have not factored in the measures we increased, which the Deputy referenced, such as the €12 increase and the cost-of-living lump sums. The analysis the ESRI did for last year showed that the lowest income households were protected through those measures from the cost of living and inflation.