Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am quoting back to the Taoiseach what I took from a quote. People are worried about how they will heat their homes, pay their rents or mortgages and put food on the table. Four months feels like a lifetime. All the indications are that this will worsen and we all know that. A number of kites on childcare, taxation and social welfare increases have been flown but how can people get relief from something when they do not know what will come in the budget? Increasingly, we are hearing people talking about already being in debt. We know that energy bills will soar by up to €2,000 this year while fuel costs will skyrocket by an additional €1,500. We know there is a staggering 30% of people in fuel poverty who are spending more than 10% of their income on energy. We also know that people on low to middle incomes are the ones suffering most and that core social welfare rates, like pensions, were only increased by €5 over the last three years. Those people cannot hang on and they are not surviving at the moment.

The promise is that more than €5 will be provided in this year's budget. We proposed an emergency budget. We think there should be a €10 increase in core social welfare rates, €300 should be put back into the pockets of those earning up to €50,000 with a refundable tax credit and a €100 million hardship fund should be created. There is no doubt that targeted measures such as a double social welfare payment is the kind of thing that could make a sizable difference. We would not mind sitting for an extra week in this House if a mini or emergency budget was brought in. Is it intended to do anything at all before the budget? Is the Government intending to extend the excise changes that are due to expire on 31 August into October?

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