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

As measured by the survey on income and living conditions, the official Central Statistics Office statistics indicate much progress in recent years. Living standards have improved, median incomes have gone up, rates of poverty and deprivation are down. Inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has narrowed. That may not be the prevailing narrative but those are the facts. There is a big risk now that because of the cost-of-living crisis, we may see the progress reversed. It is important we do all we can as a Government to ensure that does not happen.

We are not ruling out a windfall tax on energy companies. I know other countries are doing it. The difficulty we have in Ireland is that the vast majority of energy companies are not Irish. Petrol, diesel, gas, etc., are imported. This is not something we are ruling out as a potential means of raising revenue, which we could then use to help people with the cost of living.

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