Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He will agree that the Government, since its formation in 2020, has provided unprecedented supports to protect people and families, first during the pandemic and then with the cost of living. We provided €19 billion in direct income supports through the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy scheme. Those supports were put in place quickly and helped to ensure the country would rebound strongly. That is why we now have full employment and more people at work than ever before.

I know things are not easy for people at the moment. We all see when we go into a shop that the price of a basket of groceries has gone up, but thankfully some supermarket chains have announced price reductions in recent weeks. I hope we will see more of that. In fairness, the Government has done a lot to help people with the rise in the cost of living. Between October and December, we made eight separate lump-sum payments, at a cost of over €1.3 billion.

Let me give an example of what the Government is doing. Only this week, it announced changes to extend the free general practitioner card to an additional 500,000 people, including many on middle incomes because they too are under pressure as well. While a pensioner on a fuel allowance got a €12 increase, all the lump sums add up to an extra €2,331 per annum this year.

See this speech in context