Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. The inflation situation has been increasing. Aside from the budgetary effects that came in on 1 January, we did introduce measures very quickly and promptly after that in February. Everybody knows that included the €200, including VAT, energy credit to every electricity account holder in the country. Everybody should have received that by now. More importantly, there was a reduction in the public transport fare for people who cannot afford a car to travel to work and who rely on public transport. Then we had the additional €125 fuel allowance increase. That is also for working families in particular, as people with the medical card would have been exempt from the cost of the drug payment scheme, which has reduced from €120 a month to €100 a month and it is now on its way down to €80 a month. That is €40 a month that many households and working families are benefiting from. We announced temporary excise cuts as well. That has now been extended to mid-October, into the budget time. Further measures were announced in April and May, including the VAT on electricity.

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