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

The Government has taken measures and we have reduced the excise duty on petrol, diesel and green diesel until mid-October. We will deal with issues in the budget relating to all of that. People save between €9 and €12 each time they fill their tank. We have also given energy credits back to people to cut their bills. I refer to the €2.5 billion basically that was allocated between the budget and the cost-of-living packages. We are planning a multibillion euro cost-of-living package now in the forthcoming budget to alleviate pressures on households, to protect jobs in terms of the cost of this crisis on enterprise itself, and to support a range of entities that provide services to the people in terms of education in particular, in terms of schools. The Deputy said Government loves inflation; Government hates inflation. Inflation corrodes people's disposable incomes but also damages the economy in the long run. It presents challenging issues to Government and is providing challenging issues to governments across Europe. The challenge for us is to maintain and, in some instances, expand services and reduce costs to families, which we will do and have done. We have reduced costs on public transport.

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