Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 18 January 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Social Insurance Fund 2022
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 13 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 14 - Ex gratia Payments of €1.4 million to Social Welfare Branch Managers
Chapter 15 - Raising Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 16 - Recovery of Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 17 - Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund
9:30 am
Mr. John McKeon:
To be fair, the Government took the approach of introducing, for example, energy credits. There is a very substantial round of energy credits. We also gave a very significant set of one-off payments. We paid approximately €2.5 billion in one-off payments over the last two years. That was the approach the Government took. There was a deliberate reason for that. Most of the household benefit package is related to electricity and gas payments. As we know, the prices spiked upwards but now they are coming down again. If we increased the rate because of the upward spike it would be very difficult, so they were temporary measures.
No comments