An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

In the budget we made significant efforts to support people with disabilities and people on low incomes in respect of fuel. There was a basic €10 per week increase in the maximum rate of all State pensions. There were big increases in child support payments. There was an increase of €16 to €78 per week for children over the age of 12 and children under the age of 12 received an additional €8 to bring the payment to €58 per week. The fuel allowance will increase by €5 per week from January 2026. This gives an additional €140 over the fuel season. The fuel allowance now covers 26% of households, up from 23%. The extension to the family working payment to come in during March will be backdated to January. We have extended the reduced VAT rate of 9% on gas and electricity until the end of 2030. Record funding has been made available for home energy upgrades, retrofitting and solar PV via the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, with €558 million allocated. Then there is the microgeneration income tax exemption and so on. We have put in place a lot more reliefs to support those most in need.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13