More cost of living cash supports from the Government - on top of those already announced on Budget day - could be delivered in the New Year, Heather Humphreys has signalled.
Ms Humphreys said: “This government has always responded to the challenges that people have faced and we’ll continue to, come the New Year.
“If we need to look at other things, well then we will look at that.”
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The Social Protection Minister was speaking after unveiling the double payment of child benefit worth €280 per child for 637,000 families in the country which will start to be paid out this week.
This will cost the Exchequer €170million and it comes as the first of three €200 energy bill rebates will start landing in people’s accounts this week too.
Ms Humphreys spoke to reporters during a visit to the Ballyroan Community and Youth Centre in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
There will also be other one-off payments made in the coming weeks to protect the most vulnerable and ordinary workers from the pain of a soaring cost of living this winter.
These payments include a €500 payment for carers, €500 for people with disabilities and a lump sum fuel allowance payment of €400 for mostly older people.
Ms Humphreys said: “Well, what we have announced is €1.2 billion and people are getting their bills now and we need to help them pay their bills now and that's on top of the €200 electricity credit.
“It also will come off your bill from this week onwards, 200 before Christmas, 200 in January and a further 200 in March.
“So all of these coupled together means that people will have that extra money now when they need it to pay those bills.
“These measures are 1.2 billion in total, and they're going to help people address the costs that they are now facing because the bills are coming in through the door now, so we want to help them.”
Ms Humphreys said the Government was going above and beyond anything opposition parties, like Sinn Féin had proposed in their alternative budgets.
The Minister added: “Sinn Féin did not propose any of these lump sum payments apart from the doubling of the child benefit.
“So we have people put money in people's pockets when they need it, we’re putting people first and I think that's important.
“Of course then there's the increase of €12 on social welfare payments from the first of January.
“And of course, this government has always responded to the challenges that people have faced and we’ll continue to come the New Year if we need to look at other things, well then we will look at that.
“The same happened during Covid, so we needed to respond to people's needs, we did that and we'll continue to review it.”
Ms Humphreys said there would be a mechanism put in place for wealthier families to pay back supports if they didn’t want or need them.
“There’s a lot of people who are going to receive this that need it.
“A lot of working families, a lot of middle income families; for people who decide themselves that they don’t want this money there’s no problem, they can give it back to the State and I can make details available if they wish to do so.
“But the majority of people that I’m meeting when I’m out and about talking to people - they need this payment.
“They’re saying to me that the cost of living has gone up, when you go into the supermarket, the money’s not going as far as it used to."
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