Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the entire Government, I sincerely congratulate and offer my best wishes to President-elect Catherine Connolly following her election victory. It is an enormous victory for her, her family, all of her supporters and many people across County Galway and beyond. Catherine commanded a huge vote following a really successful campaign.

President-elect Connolly served with distinction in these Houses as Leas-Cheann Comhairle. In all her contributions, she demonstrated enormous integrity and professionalism. When I previously held the brief as Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, she was someone who was always constructive in her contributions. She will be a President that we can all unite behind and I wish her well as she commences her new role in the coming days.

I will speak to the loss of Sr. Stan, who had such a positive impact on so many people for so long. Sr. Stan dedicated her life to working with care and compassion on behalf of the poor and the vulnerable across the country. She showed that innate desire and unflinching determination to support those who needed the most help. Hers was a voice of charity, of care, of compassion and of devoted service to people and our thoughts are with her family on her loss today.

On Deputy McDonald's question, this Government did take action in the budget when it came to the issue of energy. That is why the work the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, did in keeping the 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity is a significant part of our overall tax package.

The fuel allowance being increased by €5, and expanded for those in receipt of the working family payment, made it a targeted approach to those who are feeling the pressure of energy prices across our economy. As a result of another Government intervention, an additional 50,000 households will be eligible for fuel allowance, which will mean that 460,000 households, or 26% of all households, are now eligible for fuel allowance. We have made wider interventions in supporting children and families, including the increase in the child support payment, and there are other measures in the context of the Department of Social Protection. Next year, that Department will have an overall allocation of over €28 billion. On our overall broader spending across our economy, this Government made a €2 billion package in social protection in budget 2026 to respond to the pressure many households face and target it to those most in need. That is the context in which we set about trying to help to mitigate the impact of energy prices.

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has done extensive work as part of the national energy affordability task force. That has set out a number of recommendations in the context of the programme for Government, where we have set out changes in assessment of the overall regulatory model for energy prices in our economy. That is work he will undertake. In the national development plan, there is our continued investment in the warmer homes scheme, with hundreds of millions of euro to support families, and many other interventions to support low-income households.

We made significant interventions in the budget as part of our social protection package, including the retention of the 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity. We made a decision not to continue one-off temporary payments because we have to be honest about managing the overall budgetary parameters and the need to manage expenditure policy out to the medium term. We want every decision we make to be sustainable, affordable and permanent. It is not sustainable to continue one-off payments over the existing allocations. That is why we made specific and targeted interventions in the context of our social protection package.

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