Cost of Living Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

We are not in any sort of bubble. The Deputy may have his political differences with me, but the economists in the Department of Finance stand over the projections. The ESRI and the Central Bank projections, published in December are there for him to see. I have outlined, as was outlined to me, the base effect. We expect inflation to further moderate as the year goes on. The Deputy has a list of things he thinks we should have done and we also have a list of things we did. Budgets are about trying to get the balance right. Wages are also up. The State pension is also up. Carer's allowance is up. Employment is up. Inflation is falling. The number of people buying their first home is up. The number of homes being built is also up. We intend to build on that in the time ahead because this was the first budget of five. While different people will have different views, we took decisions to lower the cost base for the hospitality sector. We took the decision to try to stimulate apartment building. Let us see and we will debate that in time. I believe that is a good thing to have done; the Deputy has a different view. We also took the decision to invest significantly in public services, including an extra €618 million in disability services. The Deputy knows my views on the progress I believe we can make on personal income tax to help working families in the time ahead.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10