Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely know the impact of the increase in prices in recent years has had a real effect on households and businesses. I could see, particularly during the moments when inflation soared so quickly, the effect it had on people's ability to get by and live, and the ability of businesses to trade.

I understand completely the effect it can have on many. It is raised with me regularly in my constituency work. I deal with this in respect of people from all over the country. However, one issue we have to consider is that we now have inflation below 2%. When we introduced the one-off packages, inflation was at a rate of 8%, 10% or 15%. A Government decision to make the packages available when inflation is so low would have a huge effect on other decisions we want to make with regard to capital investment.