Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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1358. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if his Department will update the reference baskets used for means tests and payments to reflect higher grocery inflation given headline CPI of 1.7% year-on-year but food inflation of 4.7% in July 2025; and if not, the reason. [45469/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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As the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), it is not within the remit of my Department to make any decisions surrounding the composition of reference baskets for measures of inflation.

According to the CSO, the CPI 'tracks the change in prices of a fixed basket of goods and services that are representative of the spending habits of Irish households'. The basket is weighted according to 'the proportion of total expenditure spent on a certain item or category in the overall basket of consumer goods and services'. Therefore, increases in the price of food items are proportionally reflected in the headline CPI rate.

More information on the CPI methodology can be found here: www.cso.ie/en/methods/prices/consumerpriceindex/methodologydocuments/frequentlyaskedquestions/.

My Department has over 90 schemes and a significant number are means-tested schemes, each with their own means test. The means test plays a critical role in determining whether an income need arises as a consequence of a particular contingency – such as disability, unemployment or caring.

Means tests and income thresholds are kept under regular review and a number of significant changes have been made in recent years.

Changes to any element of the means test could have significant cost implications and would have to be considered in an overall budgetary and policy context.