Government measures introduced to help mitigate recent increases the cost of living
Waterford TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh has welcomed the suite of Government measures introduced to help mitigate recent increases the cost of living in areas such as transport, energy and medicine. The measures announced by The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath T.D., and the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D., have been designed to support households who are experiencing an increase in consumer prices. They come on top of changes introduced in Budget 2022 such as increases in social welfare rates, targeted social welfare interventions and higher thresholds in tax bands.
Welcoming the announcement, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said:
“Increases in global energy prices and bottlenecks in the supply of goods in key regions throughout the world due to the pandemic have had a serious impact on inflation and the cost of living in Ireland which are now being really felt in people’s energy bills and at the fuel pump. It is important that the government steps in to help families and individuals at this time and the measures announced will go some way towards doing that. The changes announced include an agreement to reduce public transport fares by 20% from April until the end of the year, reduce the drugs payment scheme threshold to €80, bring forward the €10 increase in the Working Family Payment and reduce the caps for multiple children on school transport.
In addition, the €100 electricity bill credit previously announced will increase to €200 including VAT and there will also be an exceptional payment of €125 to households in receipt of the fuel allowance. The fuel allowance payment will be made in March, with the credit of €200 including VAT for electricity being applied to electricity accounts in April”.
Deputy Ó Cathasaigh continued:
“The public transport fare reduction will positively affect people in and around Waterford City as well as people using Local Link and Intercity services. The reduced cap in School Transport fees will also be welcome to parents living in more rural setting who have access to this service. However, I am acutely aware that there will still be many in rural Waterford who will still have to rely on the car, and I’ll be pushing Min. Ryan to go further, faster in delivering the Connecting Ireland strategy to give meaningful public transport options to people living outside our main urban centres.’
More information on the changes announced available here: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/2e239-ministers-mcgrath-and-donohoe-announce-505-million-package-in-measures-to-mitigate-the-cost-of-living/
