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

I thank the Deputy. On behalf of the Government, I acknowledge that we are facing a cost-of-living crisis. Inflation has reached very high levels in the past year or so. Thankfully, it is now slowing down, but that is not the same as prices falling. Prices remain very high. A lot of people and families are struggling with those bills, and everyone in government understands that. As I often that when it comes to any household bill, there are three elements to it, namely, how much you are paid, how much you get to keep after tax and how far the money goes. The Government is helping with all those aspects. In respect of pay, for example, there was an increase in the national minimum wage this year which is above the rate of inflation for this year. Most people on low pay will get the knock-on increase that those on the lowest pay get. We also have a public sector pay deal, and, I imagine, a further pay deal will be negotiated before the end of the year. That is the pay element, with pay increasing.

The second element is people being able to keep more of what they earn. The rent tax credit is an example of that. Nearly 200,000 people have claimed that credit and many more can do so. It is worth €1,000 to a couple, or €2,000 if claimed over two years, and that is helping people with the cost of living. There is also, of course, a reduction in income tax, worth about €800 a year to somebody on the average income, or €1,600 to a couple. The Deputy's party, as she knows, opposed that.

We are helping as well with reducing the cost of living. For example, there was a significant reduction in the cost of childcare at the start of this year and there have been reductions in the cost of public transport, school transport and buying medicines. All those things have been done in the past couple of months and are pure examples of what the Government is doing to help people with the cost of living.

It has not stopped there. The Deputy mentioned welfare, for example, which is in her party's motion that will be before the House later. There was a €200 welfare payment to pensioners and people in receipt of weekly payments. That was paid only last week and will help people with their bills and arrears. It does not stop there. In June, for example, there will be an extra €100 for every child in the country and that is not means tested, because we acknowledge middle-income families are struggling with the cost of living too. For those who need it the most, there is an increase in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, paid at the same rate as last year, and every child will benefit from free schoolbooks in September. Again, that is for all families, including middle-income families, because we know they are struggling too. And then comes the budget, when we can do more. There is not a month that passes when we are not doing something to help people with the cost of living because we understand families are suffering and people are struggling with those bills.

In the context of the price of groceries, which the Deputy mentioned, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, will meet the retail forum tomorrow and is going to meet producers such as farmers the day after that. He will pass on a very clear message from the Government. When input prices such as energy costs went up, retailers increased their prices. That is understandable. If your input costs go up, you have to pass on some of that increase to your customers, but when input costs go down, we expect you to pass on those reductions to your customers, and we are making that very clear to the retailers, such as the big supermarkets and the shops, and to the energy and gas companies. They put prices up when their costs went up; now that their costs are coming down, we expect them to bring down prices. We are starting to see a bit of that, but not enough.

Tá an costas maireachtála an-ard. Tá a lán daoine agus teaghlach faoi bhrú. Tuigimid é sin, ach tá tacaíocht ar fáil ag an Rialtas agus beidh níos mó tacaíochta ag teacht.

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