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

First, I do not eulogise capitalism. The Deputy says she is for a different system but she probably should be a bit more transparent. She believes in a 100% socialist economic model, which I do not think would have created the full employment that we have in this country today. I point to her approach to multinational companies. Yesterday, she said we should boycott Hewlett-Packard, and from the comments she made, by implication, Intel as well. There are thousands of people working in those companies in this country. They need to work to meet the cost of living and to provide for their families. I respectfully suggest, through the Chair, that the economic model the Deputy presents is one that would undermine the capacity of many families in this country to provide for their children and their families, because it would suck investment out of the country and would not enable us to have the reserves we have to distribute funding to those who most need it.

In our household, I do a bit of the shopping. I do not do the full shopping. I go once a week to the market. I get the porridge and the fruit. The costs have increased. By the way, my tastes are not everybody's tastes.

The costs have increased but through the budget we have worked very hard to try to deal with the cost of living because there was a big increase in inflation in the last two years. It started with the war in Ukraine and the rebound from Covid. That has hit people hard. Energy prices and food prices went up significantly. We are very conscious of that and that is why budget 2024 provided a €12 increase in weekly social welfare and pension rates. There were increased thresholds for the working family payment so that more families could qualify. Child benefit was extended to 18-year-olds in full-time education. A free book scheme was introduced for junior cycle students. We now have free book schemes for all primary kids and secondary students up to junior certificate. We hope to extend it. The hot school meals initiative as well has been very extensively expanded. The reduction in fees for school transport services has been extended for a further year. We introduced a reduction of €1,000 in fees and increased grants for third-level students. Fees were waived for students sitting State exams. The list goes on. There was a further reduction of 25% in childcare costs. More than half the population is now entitled to free GP care. We abolished hospital inpatient charges also, as well as other charges. We reduced the threshold in respect of the drug payments scheme. We brought in a rent tax credit. An unprecedented number of measures have been taken to try to ease the undoubted increase in costs that people have experienced. The Barnardos report does indicate that the SILC data of 2023 showed an overall decrease in consistent poverty from 4.9% in 2022 to 3.6% in 2023.

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