Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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272. To ask the Minister for Finance the assessment his Department has made of the planned payment of three €200 electricity credits to multiple homeowners in their distributional analysis of Budget 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51313/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The distributional analysis published by my Department shows that the overall impact of the budgetary measures is strongly progressive. The analysis provides a breakdown of the measures included in the October to December Cost of Living (CoL) package, i.e. measures impacting incomes in 2022, and of the Budget 2023package, i.e. measures impacting incomes in 2023.

Overall, household disposable income increases by 3 per cent due to the Budget 2023package and by 1.6 per cent due to the CoL package. The impact of the measures is shown in nominal terms, i.e. not adjusted for projected inflation in 2023.

Focusing on the electricity credit, the analysis takes account of two electricity credits as part of the Budget 2023 package and one credit as part of the CoL package. The disposable income of households is estimated to increase by 0.7 per cent in 2023 and by 0.4 per cent in 2022 due to the electricity credit.

The lowest income deciles see the highest proportional gains in their disposable income. On average, income deciles 1 to 4 see gains of 1.5 per cent in 2023 and 0.7 per cent in 2022 due to the credit.

Single retired and lone parents experience the highest gains in their disposable income, with single working-age adults with no children and couples with at least one retired person experiencing the next highest gains due to the credit.

Overall, the analysis shows the effectiveness of the Government’s approach in protecting the most vulnerable households from the recent rise in energy prices.