Ms Susanne Rogers:

I echo what has been said and will quote from the 540-page report, entitled Foundations for the Future: Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, which states: "A key function of the social protection system is to act as a safety net for those at risk of poverty and social exclusion". The social welfare system is extremely important. On inflation, we are not going to see a decrease in prices. That is easily visible in supermarkets where, for example, prices have increased from €1.70 to €1.90 to €2.10. The price will not go back to €1.70, however, it will remain at €2.10. To even combat food inflation, we would have needed a rise of €33 on basic social welfare. We only got an increase of €12 even though everybody called for an increase of €20, which was an amount that would have only allowed people to stand still and would not have made an impact on poverty or deprivation figures. I appreciate that €12 is a much bigger figure than we have seen in recent years but it is not enough and we are not keeping up with the world in which we live in terms of basics. Every single time anybody conducts research, they come up with the same cohorts that are most at risk, namely, lone-parent households, those who were removed from the workforce due to illness or disability, rural households and older households. Ideally, we need more than €8 just so people can afford to put food on their tables and put the heat on.