Cost of Living Issues
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I acknowledge that pressure. We see that as well - we are not immune from that - but we also have to be honest with people about our ability to make interventions. We cannot make interventions every few months. There will be an intervention in the context of the forthcoming budget. We have made a €750 million intervention since March in two packages, which has reduced the day-to-day cost of fuel for people and has brought in a targeted extension of the fuel allowance payment, giving people access to the fuel allowance to the beginning of May. This was not previously available to those 469,000 households. Some 500,000 households are benefiting from the households benefits package, which will be paid all year around, including the summer.
We will continue to review all of the pressures people are under. We get it, but we also have to be honest. We cannot support all of those pressures, and we have to do this in a manner that is feasible and allows us to respond when the winter comes when energy prices and energy pressures will possibly be worse.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30