Ms Jenny Connors:

I accept the point about the ESRI's comments but, overall, it was quite positive about the Government's response cushioning the lowest deciles. I draw the Deputy's attention to the fact that our Department answered a parliamentary question a number of weeks ago, I think, about this issue. In our response we stripped out the once-offs and redid the analysis for next year and the welfare package for 2023 was found to be progressive. For the lowest decile, we found that there would be a gain of about 3.7%, down to about 2.9% for the third decile. However, I take the point made about that landing in people's pockets. I am not sure why one would strip out the once-off measures, but the analysis is there and there is transparency in that regard.