Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central The Government did not wait. The Deputy has to be honest that over the last number of years, we have brought in very significant schemes that permanently reduce the cost of living for people. The free primary and second level school books scheme has reduced costs for families with children going to school. We also have the free hot school meals, a very recent innovation, which also helps families. The national childcare scheme is a universal subsidy that helps to reduce the cost of childcare. In terms of the fuel allowance, we have extended that, and brought in 50,000 extra on the working family payment. We did not wait. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-21