Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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All I can do in response to the points the Deputy makes is to reiterate the reality of what happened this year. For those within our society who are on the lowest income, through a combination of the €12 increase in core payment rates and the one-off measures, the additional double payments that were made last autumn, the additional measures that were repeated before the summer, plus the three energy credits that were brought in, objectively speaking, we have protected the average citizen within that group from most of the inflationary impact and in some cases all of the inflationary impact. That has happened.

I agree with the Deputy that high inflation is redistributive and it redistributes from those who have the most to those who have the least, but that is why we brought in such a huge budget last year with so many measures in it.