Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I am extraordinarily conscious of the fact that people at home following this debate and people in workplaces are feeling an extraordinary sense of economic anxiety. However, I also have to make sure we have the best data and best analysis available in terms of the economic impact this conflict may have in our country, on the eurozone and on the global economy. That enables the Government to then decide how best to intervene should that be required. I made the point earlier today, and I make it again, that working at a European level is important. That is what we did as a country at the start of the brutal Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine. It brought about policy changes, regulations and decisions at a European level that allowed, for example, for a windfall tax, and the benefits of that being utilised for our citizens. As the Taoiseach said yesterday and I say today - we are completely ad idem on this - we keep all of these matters under review. We have taken a number of practical measures already to assist people, including the expansion of the fuel allowance to 50,000 more households next week, the reduction of the VAT rate on people's energy bills, the reduction of the PSO and increasing the rate of fuel allowance. We will continue to work on this intensively in the time ahead.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05