Michael McGrath has pledged there will be something for every home in the country in the Budget in two weeks’ time.
Mr McGrath told the Irish Mirror: “there will be some benefit for every household.”
The pledge from the Finance Minister comes as the cost of living crisis continues to worsen ahead of what for most will be a very difficult winter.
Mr McGrath was speaking from the Mullingar Park Hotel where Fianna Fáil were holding the second day of their annual parliamentary party think-in.
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Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was also in Mullingar where he confirmed that the Government will be giving households relief off their electric and heating bills again.
Mr Martin gave his approval for more energy rebates instead of price caps - which is the route the UK is going down.
There has already been one energy rebate in April, which saw every home in the country get €200 credit on their bills, at a cost of €400million to the Exchequer.
But Sinn Féin wants the Government to go for price caps on the energy bills of consumers.
Their finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, said “skyrocketing bills” means the Government must take drastic actions.
He is proposing freezing prices at winter 2021 levels across the board.
The cost of living package is expected to be at least €2billion when it is announced on September 27th and the Mirror asked the Finance Minister if he’ll prioritise people or businesses on the day.
Mr McGrath said: “Well, it's both.
“It is to put money in people's pockets, but also to protect jobs.
“Because if you lose jobs, then the economic consequences and the fallout from that spiral, you end up with more people on social welfare, which has a direct impact on the exchequer as well.
“So it is in all of our interest to protect employment, and make sure that otherwise viable businesses are supported.
“And we're not saying as a government that we will be able to fully offset what we’ll face, it would be unrealistic to give that commitment.
“But we do recognise we need to help, and we need to help households too.
“And we brought in about €1.3billion of exceptional measures between February and July, that was of help, significant help, to a lot of people.
“The situation has deteriorated since and so we do need to go further now in two weeks’ time.”
Mr Martin said there are difficulties with any proposed price caps.
He said: “I favour the credit approach along with other approaches which we have executed in relation to earlier cost-of-living packages, not a cap.
"There are huge questions around the cap.
“Who ultimately pays for it and over what time frame?
“We do have tried-and-trusted ways that we can get money to people quickly in order to meet bills."
Energy minister Eamon Ryan said before a Dáil committee that a further electricity credit will be available to people before Christmas.
Sinn Féin’s Mr Doherty said: “Energy bills are skyrocketing and families across the country are worried sick about paying their bills.
"Prices are going up and up, yet the Government is failing to act.
“The Government refused Sinn Féin’s calls for an emergency budget before the summer and have been dragging their heels about acting to help hard-pressed workers and families.
“People can’t wait, they need help and they need it now."
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar was also talking about the Budget yesterday and he promised that people’s spending power wouldn’t fall dramatically.
He said: “I don't think it's about a competition of trying to spend more money than we spent during Covid, I think that's the wrong approach.
"It has to be enough to reassure people that their living standards won't fall precipitously.
"It has to be enough to say to businesses that we saved jobs and businesses during the pandemic, we're not going to let them go to the wall now.
"It also needs to reassure the vulnerable that there's a floor that we won't let them fall below."
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