The Opposition is trying to put pressure on the Government to include a fresh round of electricity credits for households in next month’s budget.
The demand was made by Sinn Féin and Labour in the Dáil amid rising energy bills and the continuing “cost-of-living crisis”.
The Coalition has said there would be no one-off measures in Budget 2026, which will instead focus on permanent measures to help households and invest in infrastructure.
Mary Lou McDonald told Micheál Martin that half a million customers were last week informed by energy companies that “they’ll be hit with massive electricity bill hikes from next month”.
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The Sinn Féin leader criticised the Government for its plan to exclude electricity credits in the budget, saying: “You’re effectively telling households, ‘Tough you’re on your own’.
“You can’t leave households high and dry, and you must include energy credits in the budget.”
The Taoiseach said recent cost-of-living packages were brought in due to spiralling inflation after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There will be supports in the budget for those most in need. We will be targeting resources towards those who will be impacted the most by the increase in energy prices,” Mr Martin said.
Earlier Labour leader Ivana Bacik accused the Government of failing “families fighting every day to keep afloat” during the “cost-of-living crisis”.
“We’re seeing ‘greedflation’, soaring food prices in particular and energy bills that are among the highest in Europe, housing bills that are among the highest in Europe,” she said.
Ms Bacik said a fifth of children, equating to 225,000, were living in poverty.
She said there had been “no indication from Government that you will use your €9.4 billion euro [budget] to bring struggling families any meaningful respite in October”.
She said there needed to be a “reinstatement of targeted energy credits, extension of the ban on disconnections for families and, crucially, a second targeted rate of child benefit now, not sometime in the future”.
Mr Martin said 506,000 more people were in employment now than five years ago and “the most effective intervention in terms of poverty or living standards is work and jobs”.
He said wage increases were higher than the current inflation rate of 2 per cent, but he acknowledged “food inflation is higher at about 5 per cent”.
Mr Martin told Ms Bacik: “I appreciate your focus on targeting, because we do intend to target in the budget and we do intend to prioritise the issue of child poverty and those most in need and under considerable pressure.”
But he said it was “not economically sustainable” to continue to do “large stand-alone cost-of-living packages”.
There had to be “mainstream provision” that cuts costs for families and he cited the free schoolbooks for children as one such measure.
