Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1349.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there are plans to regularly adjust welfare payments to reflect current inflation rates, in light of the severe impact of inflation on those reliant on fixed incomes; and, if so, the basis on which payments will be increased. [32704/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am acutely aware, as we all are, of the pressures faced by those on fixed incomes given increases in the cost of living.

Thankfully, this Government's management of the Irish economy, means that even in the face of challenging international conditions we have the capacity to respond, and we have responded.

As Minister for Social Protection, I am fully committed to making the case for a fair Budget that protects the people most in need in our society - particularly families on low incomes and those people, including pensioners and carers, who are dependent on social welfare payments.

As part of Budget 2024, I secured a €2.3 billion Social Protection package. This was, for the second year in a row, the largest in the history of the State.

This package provided a mixture of lump sum cost of living payments, along with across the board €12 weekly rate increase in primary payments.

Independent, Post-Budget analysis from the ESRI also showed that the Budget package that the combination of basic rate increases with some lump sum payments was more effective than a simple price indexed increase.

The CSO's 2023 Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), published recently, shows that the 'At Risk of Poverty' rate in 2023 was 10.6%. This represented a very welcome reduction of almost 2% on the previous year's figure of 12.5%, reflecting the strong impact of measures we have taken in recent Budgets - including the cost of living support supports - in protecting the most vulnerable from the risk of poverty arising from inflation. Notably the consistent poverty rate of 3.6% is at its lowest level since records were first compiled and is nearly 2 full percentage points, or 35% lower, than when this Government came into power.

In early July, I met with many stakeholders at our annual pre-budget forum with a view to continuing this progress. I listened to their views on their priorities in the forthcoming budget. In recent years, this has been a key influence on Budget formulation and the measures that I will bring forward for consideration of Government.

On benchmarking and indexation, in September 2022 I announced a series of reforms to the State Pension system in response to the recommendations from the Commission on Pensions. As part of this, the Government committed that a smoothed earnings method to calculating a benchmarked/indexed rate of State Pension payments would be introduced as an input to the annual budget process and be submitted to Government each year from 2023. This calculation was first used as an input in last years Budget and will be used as an input as part of the annual Budget process.