Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I did acknowledge, and have spoken a couple of times today about, the elevated level of grocery prices and the impact it is having on households. Please do not say I did not acknowledge it. I did. It is the Deputy's standard practice now to make assertions that are not true. Of course prices are impacting on families and households but the taxation measures we took last year in the budget benefited low-income workers and medium-income workers, through both the USC reduction, in particular, and the income tax reductions. We did it in previous budgets as well. Those are sustainable measures to help people cope with what has been an extraordinary period of growth in prices more generally. We had a significant impact on insurance reforms, which we worked and focused on over the past number of years.

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