Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the pandemic recognition payment, I hear what the Deputy has to say. We discussed this earlier. The challenge for the Government is this. The Deputy mentioned retail workers. There are up to 300,000 retail workers in Ireland. There are about 120,000 carers in receipt of the carer's support grant. The Deputy can do the maths. If we add that to the cost of what the Government has committed to, we are getting to north of half a billion euro very quickly. That is the reality that the Government has to face in making a decision on this issue. We absolutely recognise the invaluable role all of those people played.

Turning to the issue at hand, I acknowledge that the inflationary pressures are real and they are hurting people. They are affecting people. The Government is acutely conscious of that. The measures we brought in during the budget have only just kicked in, in the main. They include over €1 billion in respect of income tax and social welfare improvements. They will certainly help.

I have dealt with the issue in respect of public pay. It is about a 5% increase for those at the lower end of the public pay spectrum. Of course the Minister for Finance and I discuss these issues on an ongoing basis. We expect that the level of inflation will moderate and subside over the period ahead. That is no consolation to people right now. We believe the Government's measures will help people who are struggling with inflation at this time.

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