Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
76. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the impact on public expenditure of the recently announced measures to help address cost of living issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11371/22]
View answerIn recognition of the challenges that households are facing with rising energy costs we announced a package of measures on 10 February.
The package of measures is intended to be targeted and timely, in order to help with the immediate challenges that households are facing with energy costs. These measures seek to assist households on lower incomes and other families who are facing increased energy bills, and are set within an overall fiscal framework that seeks to ensure that we have the resources to deliver on our commitments to better services for our people. The total gross cost of this package is expected to be c.€527 million.
The Revised Estimates 2022 set out an Government Expenditure Ceiling of €87,593 million, including funding already allocated to Departments of almost €83 billion with further amounts totalling just over €4.6 billion held in reserve. At this stage the costs of the package of measures are expected to be met from within the overall Government Expenditure Ceiling.
Government is acutely aware of the need to provide support to households that are experiencing difficulties, and is also mindful of the need to ensure that our public finances return to a sustainable position and to avoid actions that could result in increased inflation. Sustainable public finances are essential to deliver improvements in key public services and infrastructure for our people. In this context, the package has focused on one-off temporary support measures that can quickly provide assistance to households, without pre-committing significant funding from the available resources for Budget 2023.
