Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I announced on Budget Day that the Government will spend €2.2 billion on new 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 increase supports recipients across all Social Welfare weekly schemes including pensioners and those of working age. It also includes a proportionate increase for adult dependants which means that the basic increase for a two-adult household will be between €20 and €22.80 per week.This is the largest social welfare package in the history of the State.

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

For example, a pensioner living alone and in receipt of fuel allowance will receive over €1,600 in additional payments and energy credits in the 12 months after the Budget, when compared to the previous 12 months – that’s equivalent to an increase of about €31 per week.

Taking another example, a person with a disability living alone and in receipt of fuel allowance 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 which gets money to those who need it most. In addition, it ensures people get the value of the increases early - during the winter period when they are needed most.

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.