Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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427. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to calls by an organisation (details supplied) to raise all core social protection rates by at least €20 in the Social Welfare Bill 2022; if she will take this information into account and make the necessary increases; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52729/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I confirm I have received the correspondence from Age Action Ireland.

I am very grateful for the time and effort taken by Age Action Ireland in producing this documentation and in drawing these suggestions to my attention, as I am with all of the community and voluntary groups representing a wide range of cohorts within Irish society, all of whom advocate their position with clarity and strength.

I announced on Budget Day that the Government will spend over €2.1 billion on Social Protection measures, including over €880 million in order to provide for a €12 increase to the weekly rate of social welfare payments from January 2023. This supports both pensioners and those of working age and includes a proportionate increase for qualified adults.

This is the largest social welfare package in the history of the State.

The rate increase is accompanied by a wide range additional measures and lump sum payments this year to social welfare customers. Taken together, for many household types, the combination effectively matches, or exceeds, inflation.

For example, a pensioner living alone will receive over €1,600 in additional payments and energy credits over the next 12 months compared to the 12 months just past – that’s equivalent to an increase of about €31 per week.

Taking another example, a person with a disability living alone will benefit by about €1,850 - an increase of about 14% which is worth €36 per week.

Combining one-off measures with underlying rate increases is a prudent, targeted approach.

In its post-Budget analysis, the ESRI stated that welfare increases in 2022 and 2023, together with one-off measures, are large enough to leave the lowest-income households better-off on average than they would have been had welfare payment rates risen in line with inflation both this year and next.

I am satisfied that the total social welfare budget package for 2023 has been designed to protect the most vulnerable in society. As we have done to date, the Government will continue to monitor the situation closely and will respond again, if necessary.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.