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

As the Deputy mentioned, the ESRI recommends a number of measures in its report. I was interested to hear spokespeople for the ESRI talk in interviews about discounts on energy bills - one of the things we have done - as another option and one that benefits lower income households more than higher income households, proportionately. They also talked about increasing income tax credits, which is a form of income tax cut and they also talked about reducing PRSI. There are lots of options on the table and lots of ways that we can help people with the rising cost of living but we are working towards a budget package at the moment.

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