Paul Murphy urges emergency cost-of-living payments

Thanks very much, Cairn Corla. Tonish, your predecessor, Pascal Donoghue, said that there was no need for cost of living payments in the budget because, quote, inflation has now returned to normal rates. He said that inflation will be around 2% this year. That's obviously now clearly not the case. We have over 4% food price inflation. We have 3.3% energy price inflation. It's going to be a cold, hard Christmas for a lot of people. So at this very late stage, I'm asking you to reconsider and to bring in emergency cost of living payments. Thank you very much to Deputy Murphy for raising the question. I do just want to say, I said it earlier, but I do want to say in relation to my department's forecasts around inflation that an uptick in inflation was anticipated and it's down to what they describe as the base effects. Indeed, the CSO itself has outlined that the increase in inflation since September largely accounted for by-base effects and therefore the assessment for inflation next year has not materially changed. I think that's important to say to people because I do understand that the cost of living pressures are real on people and they see individual items of inflation and individual reports and they wonder what does that mean for the year ahead. But my department, and not just my department, the European Commission, indeed the ESRI today, the ESRI today has downgraded its inflation forecast for next year as recently as its report this morning. And we are now seeing wages growing faster than prices, which should now mean the average worker experiencing real wage gains next year. And that, I know, is much needed. I would argue, and you and I would have a different perspective on this, but we have endeavoured to provide significant support to households and businesses over the last number of years to help absorb the worst impact of higher prices. There was a temporary nature to these supports and it balanced the need to provide assistance to the most vulnerable, while at the same time avoiding a scenario wherein fiscal policy added to inflationary pressures. There are, and I say this for people at home, if government decides to spend lots more, it can have an inflationary effect and actually offset the benefit of what you're trying to achieve. So we always have to try and get that balance between increasing investment and moderating the growth in day-to-day spending, while avoiding doing anything that has such a cost that it could actually create other difficulties for us in the time ahead. We have taken a number of measures in the budget to try and assist people. I take the issue of energy most specifically, because I know it's a real issue. It's a real issue for people this winter. More people than ever before will qualify for fuel allowance. The fuel allowance rate will increase. For the first time, people on the working family payment will get the fuel allowance as well. And we also have a disconnection moratorium in place for the winter period. So nobody should feel the cold in their home this winter. And I do want to say that to people, too. We have supports in place to help those experiencing energy poverty. Thanks a lot. I mean, the truth is we're going to have the highest inflation rights in two years. It isn't back to the extremely high rates that we saw before then, but it's high. And the whole premise upon which the government justified not continuing with cost-of-living payments was because inflation has now returned to normal rates. So there was a logic set out that has now been confounded by reality, and yet the government is sticking with its position of no return of one-off payments. I mean, you know that the impact of the withdrawal of one-off payments was very hard for the poorer sections of our society. The bottom 10% lost, as a result of the reduction of the, or getting rid of the one-off payments, 4.4% of their income. The next 10% lost 3.9%. So huge cuts in income, and then obviously particularly cruel, savage cuts reserved for disabled people of about 1,400 euros per year for them. Thank you. Tom and Ishtar. I would very respectfully make the point that we put in place an extraordinary level of support for people over the last four years. And thank God this country was in a position to do that. And we did it at a time of very, very high inflation. Those measures always had to be temporary, and it is always difficult to unwind those measures. But I am crystal clear that if we did not get back to a situation of being able to deliver one regular budget each year, the position would not be fiscally sustainable into the future. It also wouldn't necessarily be a good use of public resources. You probably don't need an energy credit this year. No, I don't mean that to be personal to you. I mean, people in the Oireachtas don't need an energy credit this year. There are people who need absolute assistance with their energy bills this year. And we're constantly trying to get that balance right. We did say we were going to move to permanent targeted measures at a time when wages are thankfully growing. Above prices for the first time in a while. We did, of course, keep the Christmas bonus measure in place, which is that one-off double payment that is paid to all people, pensioners, in relation to long-term social welfare payments, including our pensioners. And I would objectively say, and it is objective, that the budget was a progressive budget. That the permanent measures introduced in Budget 2026 benefited those on lower incomes above and beyond those on higher incomes. You're underlying numbers, you're underlying the budget of electricity, but it has reached 60 sec. And now, that over 2026 is about 6 weeks now. However, you can invest more in college and benefit, but the government is actually giving us back half a month with 40-33 up the Lànt Governance in the Philippines. You're not allowed to mess up, but it won't be the last year for 120 hours of new mode. I understand why it's evidence, see if money goes up. Well, I understand, in fact, no one of them is happening.