Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I thank the Deputy for his question on a very important area which is very much to the fore in the mindset of the Government, namely, the cost of living and how vulnerable families grapple with the weekly shop and the price of groceries. In the context of budget 2026, I want to outline how we as a Government are supporting people who are the most vulnerable. We came forward in budget 2026 with a €9.4 billion package. This is about 3.25 times the size of the pre-pandemic package. In terms of wages, if we look at the CSO data, which is the gold standard, it shows a 45% increase in weekly wages since 2015. The average wage is over €1,000 a week. All 13 sectors of our economy are growing evenly. Critically, regarding real wage growth, we are outpacing the rate of inflation.
To assist the most vulnerable families, we extended the clothing and back to school footwear allowance to two- and three-year-olds. We increased the child support payment by €16 for over-12s and €8 for under-12s. We brought forward the reduction to 9% in the VAT rate and extended it to the end of 2030, saving people €100 a month on utility bills, at a cost of €254 million. We brought forward a number of changes to the social welfare code. We brought the fuel allowance to help 46,000 additional families. At this point, one in four households gets the fuel allowance. We have increased the allowance by 15%, which is well above the rate of inflation. Again, we are looking to prevent poverty and fuel poverty over these critical periods. We have also increased the basic rates of social welfare and the thresholds for the carer's allowance, bringing us on a pathway to abolishing the means test. Again, this is rewarding carers and trying to assist those who are protecting the most vulnerable and doing the State a huge service in keeping people in their homes and living independently.
We have worked very hard in increasing the basic social welfare payments by €520 per year. This, again, is a great assistance. We have extended the thresholds of the working family payment for those who are working and on lower incomes. In the public sector pay agreement, we can see how we have ensured that people on incomes under €50,000, those who are under the most pressure, get the greatest increase. Over the lifetime of the agreement, as I just outlined, the increase will be about 17.3%.
This demonstrates what the Government is doing and the action we are taking to respond to the challenges. This year, I will enhance the powers of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, the key agency that looks into competition in our sectors, to ensure we are getting fair competition in the grocery sector. We have seen a number of investigations to date in this regard. We have also seen the work the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is doing in meeting the energy companies. They are very clear. They have hardship funds, and anyone who is in danger should liaise with their energy company. There is assistance there.
We want to work to ensure that everyone is protected in society. That is what you do when you have a strong economy.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-15