Tánaiste Leo Varadkar defended the government's decision to introduce universal measures such as the once-off €200 credit deducted from Irish household's electricity bills earlier this year.
Speaking on Virgin Media's The Tonight Show, the Tánaiste said having only targeted measures would not benefit middle income families who are also "feeling the squeeze".
He said: "You can have targeted measures, and you can have universal measures. So universal measures that help everyone like €200 taken off every households electricity bill and you can have targeted measures like we did on the same day, which was to pay an additional fuel allowance payment to those who are most in need".
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Presenter Kieran Cuddihy then asked Mr Varadkar if the €200 credit was means tested, would it have better served in helping people who are struggling with the current cost of living crisis.
He asked: "Why not increase the fuel allowance payment and not give you 200 quid back in your pocket and me 200 quid back in my pocket?
"Like, I welcome the 200 quid, but if I'm being entirely honest, did I need it? No. You didn't."
However, Mr Varadkar defended the decision saying that increasing the fuel allowance instead "would only benefit a very small number of people in the country".
He said: "Well, it's not about you and me. Turn it the other way around. What if we just increased the Fuel Allowance?
"If we just increased the Fuel Allowance, that would only benefit a very small number of people in the country.
"You know there are people on social welfare who don't qualify for the Fuel Allowance or lots of pensioners maybe your parents maybe my parents that don't qualify for the Fuel Allowance and often when people talk about targeted measures, it's often that people don't understand how the social welfare system the tax system works.
"Targeted measures really can only benefit people in receipt of social welfare and not even all of them.
"If you want to do anything for working people, working families, middle income families, lots of people are really feeling the squeeze. Then you can't just do targeted measures. You need to do something else."
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