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

As I said earlier - perhaps I did not say it - we are not going to oppose the motion that Sinn Féin has tabled. We do not agree with all of it, but we think there are some things in it that we are doing already and that can be done. There are other suggestions that are worthy of consideration. While we will not be agreeing to everything Sinn Féin has put forward, we will not be opposing the motion in the round because much it is being done already and much of it can be done in future. I mentioned that, just last week, €200 was paid to pensioners and people in receipt of weekly social welfare payments to help them with bills like electricity and gas, with a further payment to help families coming in only a few weeks' time.

The Deputy is correct to say, as is Unite the Union that real incomes fell last year. In other words, prices rose faster than incomes did. That was the first year that was the case in a very long time. It will not be the case this year. We are confident that this year we will see a real increase in incomes again. We expect inflation to be around 5% this year. The national minimum wage will go up by 7% this year and a public sector pay deal to be negotiated. We expect to see real incomes rise again this year as they have increased in previous years, which means that most people will be better off. The Deputy is right to say that the cost of living in Ireland is high. It has been high for a very long time; maybe 30% or 40% higher than the EU average. However, incomes here are also 30% to 40% higher on average and that also needs to be borne in mind.

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