Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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124. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline the recently announced measures to tackle the rising cost of living; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21193/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Government is acutely aware of the challenge that rising prices pose to many households, in particular for those on lower incomes. In light of this, a number of targeted support measures have been announced recently which build on the measures under Budget 2022 to provide additional assistance, focused on providing support against increased energy prices.

In February Government announced a package of support measures to mitigate the impact of cost of living pressures, with a value of over half a billion euro including the earlier announced €100 Energy Credit. This comprised:

- An increase in the energy credit to €200 including VAT, estimated to impact just over 2 million households.

- A lump sum payment of €125, paid in March, to fuel allowance recipients.

- To reduce the burden on people returning to the workplace and other people using public transport, there will be a temporary reduction, to the end of the year, in fares of 20% on PSO public transport services. This was implemented in April for routes outside Dublin and is to be implemented in May in the Greater Dublin Area. This will benefit approximately 800,000 daily users.

- The Drug Payment Scheme threshold is further reduced to €80 per month, having been reduced to €100 per month in Budget 2022. This will benefit just over 70,000 recipients.

- The increase in the threshold for the working family payment announced on Budget Day has been brought forward from June to April.

- Reduced caps for multiple children on school transport fees to €500 per family post primary and €150 for primary school children for the next academic year. 

This month a further Fuel Allowance lump sum payment of €100, to be paid in May, was announced at an estimated €37 million cost to provide further assistance to those very vulnerable to fuel poverty.

These expenditure measures are in addition to the excise duty reduction on petrol, diesel and marked gas oil introduced by the Minister for Finance and now extended until the Budget in October 2022, and the VAT reduction from 13.5% to 9% on gas and electricity bills until end October.

Together, these measures provide substantial assistance towards mitigating the impact of rising prices. They have focused on temporary support measures that can quickly provide assistance to households that are also balanced against the need ensure that our public finances return to a sustainable position and to avoid actions that could result in increased inflation.