Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very much the view of Government that we need to take action and do something to help people with their energy bills in the new year. We are particularly focusing on electricity because it is a bill everyone gets. It is something that people have to use. They do not have any choice as to what type of energy to use and must use what comes in on the wires. We are working on that at the moment. As I said, if we are going to do something that will have an impact on people's bills in the new year, we will have to make a decision in the next week or two. The Ministers, Deputies Donohoe, Michael McGrath and Eamon Ryan, are working on that as I speak.

The Deputy did not acknowledge some of the things the Government is doing to help people with the cost of living. There are to be pay increases next year. An increase in the minimum wages kicks in from January. Most people in the private sector are getting decent pay increases this year coming, as they should. There are to be increases in the pension and welfare payments from January and there has already been an increase in the fuel allowance. There will also be reductions in income tax for middle-income earners. It is not only low-income earners who struggle with bills. People on middle incomes and middle-class people do too. We are reducing income tax in the new year. People will see that in their payslips from January. When they see that, they will know it is something Sinn Féin opposed.

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