Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In her opening remarks, the Deputy made reference to the situation with regard to housing and health before raising the issue of the cost of living. Without question, this Government has embarked on a step change in respect of housing through its Housing for All strategy. There will be investment of more than €4 billion per annum from the State alone in addition to private sector investment. The largest social housing programme ever to be concluded will be under way in 2022. There is affordable housing, the Land Development Agency legislation has been passed, and so on. This will make a difference. There have already been over 30,000 housing commencements to the end of 2021, with a higher outcomes expected for 2022. We are making progress on housing but I acknowledge that there is a long way to go and that there are significant challenges.

On health, the Deputy completely omitted any reference to the fact that our health service has stood up to a one in 100 years event, the Covid-19 pandemic. This posed a great challenge to our health service. We resourced our health service to an extraordinary degree to combat the challenges presented by Covid-19. With regard to mortality and levels of illness, we actually did better than most countries across Europe. The bottom line is that, without question, the pandemic had an impact on waiting lists.

With regard to the cost of living, níl aon amhras ach go bhfuil an costas maireachtála ag dul in airde. Níl an tír seo freagrach as sin. Is rud é atá ag tarlú ar fud an domhain, mar is eol don Teachta. Tá dlúthbhaint idir sin agus an polasaí atá ag an Rúis ó thaobh praghsanna gáis agus dóthain gáis a chur ar fáil. Is é sin bun agus barr na faidhbe maidir leis an gcostas maireachtála atá ann ar fud an domhain faoi láthair. That is to say, inflation has picked up across the world. In her analysis, the Deputy ignored the global impact. Almost all of these inflationary cycle issues have been occurring across the globe. As the Deputy will know, Europe receives the majority of its gas supply from Russia. Lower flows of gas from that country have been a major factor. The current geopolitical tensions with regard to Ukraine could exacerbate that and make things even worse if there was to be any military incursion, with all of the consequences that would flow from that.

In addition to that, there were supply chain issues relating to Covid. These global supply chain issues also had an impact in increasing inflation. The Government responded in the budget through the €5 increase in the fuel allowance and the good social protection initiatives we introduced. We also announced a tax package worth about €520 million to assist people with their disposable income. The welfare package was worth approximately €558 million. This year, 1.8 million working families will benefit from the tax package alone. I note Sinn Féin's alternative budget did not include indexation of income tax bands and credits, which would have meant an increase in tax for workers across the board.

With regard to another intervention we made, extending GP cover, the Vincentian model shows that this can often be very impactful for those on minimum incomes and for the disposable incomes of people more generally. We introduced some targeted measures with regard to the social protection approach which will help people on low incomes in particular.

The European Central Bank has said that this inflationary cycle is related to the pandemic. That remains to be seen.

The Government took a decision today, however, in respect of the legislation that will be required to give everyone a €100-plus deduction from their electricity bills, which will help in addition to budgetary measures we took.

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