Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has stated that additional cost-of-living measures that will be made public in the spring will include a “social welfare and pensions element.”
The leader of Fine Gael said that this week, the ministers of finance, public expenditure, and social protection will meet with the leaders of the three coalition parties to discuss the extension of measures.
“We haven’t decided on any of the details of it yet,” Mr Varadkar told RTÉ’s This Week.
“I believe that you need an element of both universal measures to help everyone but those who are suffering the most are those who need the most help.
“And one of the things we will make a judgment call on this week is some additional welfare payments. We haven’t decided the nature of those exactly; who will get them, who won’t, and how much.
“What I can say is that there will be a social welfare and pensions element to the cost of living package for the spring.
“And that’s because people on pensions and people who are receiving social welfare payments, they’re the ones who are really struggling the most with the high cost of living and we have to help them.”
Considering that the economy is strong and the public finances have been carefully managed, Mr. Varadkar claimed that the government can afford to provide assistance.
He added that there will be another package on Budget Day to help with winter costs as he moved to reassure people that there won’t be a “cliff edge” end to supports.
The Taoiseach said people will “know where they stand long before the end of the month”.
He further stated that a social protection package is currently being developed by Minister of Social Protection Heather Humphreys.
The Taoiseach continued by saying that he hopes 2023 will mark the year when the housing crisis “turns the corner” and the number of homeless people declines.
Mr Varadkar said they have been making “real progress”, with almost 30,000 new homes built last year.
He said he thinks the final figure for the number of new build social homes will be close to 8,000, which he said would be the highest since 1975.
“I accept that we need to accelerate supply and do more to help people buy their first home … and we have a lot of schemes now in place,” he said.
The Taoiseach said they have not yet made a decision on extending the eviction ban.
He said they had hoped that the ban would lead to homeless numbers falling, but he acknowledged that they have continued to rise “albeit at a slower rate”.
“It’s a decision that has to be discussed by Government, it’s not for me to make unilaterally,” he said.
“There are upsides and downsides – the positive obviously is that it would see fewer people losing their home and being evicted into homelessness.
“On the other hand, we are seeing landlords leaving the market in very big numbers and that’s a problem too.”