Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

As a result of the actions of this Government, and because we have not spent every single penny we have, it has meant that over the years when we have had significant challenges - be it Covid-19 or the war in Ukraine and the implications these have had in terms of the cost of living - we have had money to give back to people. In last year's budget alone, there were €2.2 billion worth of one-off measures. What people are saying very clearly is that they want longer term measures. They want to make sure that the overall costs are permanently reduced for them. That is where our focus needs to be. We have to use the money we have because of the surplus and the fact that we focused on our economy, making sure we have enterprise here that can create the tax base that creates this funding to be spent by everybody.

This is why we are putting in place permanent measures. We will have free schoolbooks for 1 million children this year. That is a saving for families. We have hot school meals for all primary schools, which, again, is a saving for families. Social welfare payments have increased year on year. We are providing a 9% permanent reduction in VAT for businesses. We know the knock-on effect this has for people who are out socialising. In circumstances where someone has lost their job, the jobseeker's pay-related benefit that has been introduced reflects more what their wages would have been. We have had more permanent changes, particularly when you focus on the huge amount of investment that is going into retrofitting homes and supporting those who are most at risk. There is no point continuing to provide one-off measures. What people want are permanent changes, and that is what we are absolutely focused on.

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