Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

The surplus is because of corporation tax and other taxes, not because of any cutback here. We have actually increased the fuel allowance and the number of people entitled to receive the fuel allowance. It is now supporting about 417,000 households and will cost about €400 million, which is money well spent. In addition, the household benefits package for a lot of elderly people comprises, as the Deputy will know, the likes of the gas or electricity allowance, the free TV licence and so on. The retrofit programme has also been particularly impactful in terms of the number of households that have benefited from that. It is increasing significantly every year, which reduces energy costs. I acknowledge that there are challenges and pressures on people but we have focused and targeted our resources on the low-income groups, as opposed to having universal energy credits this time, which would have spread money to those on higher incomes. We wanted to focus on the elderly and those on low incomes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17