Micheál Martin said he is “hopeful” the soaring cost of living driven by inflation is a “temporary phenomenon.”
But the Taoiseach also conceded that “the jury is out” on how long the current wave will last.
Last week the Government announced a €500million package to try and alleviate the increasing prices which people are seeing across the board, including for fuel, food and services.
The Taoiseach also denied that he had “slapped down” his junior minister, Seán Fleming after he was slammed for telling people to “shop around” to beat the high cost of living.
The comments from Mr Fleming went down like a lead balloon with the public and he was forced to apologise a number of times.
It is understood Mr Martin spoke to Mr Fleming privately about his comments after he made them during a car crash interview on RTE Radio One’s Drivetime last week.
He said: “I didn’t slap him [Mr Fleming] down…. We just discussed it.
“This inflation is real, people are feeling the extra cost, they have every right to complain.
"I think Seán gets that, and he’s apologised for that.”
Mr Martin was speaking on Today FM’s The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Monday evening.
The Taoiseach said about the giveaway that “ the package was never going to alleviate the entire situation,” after the plan was criticised by the opposition for not going far enough.
He said that the reason the €200 energy rebate was made universal, given to rich people who don’t need it as well as those struggling, was so it could be done quickly.
Mr Martin said: “What we are endeavouring to do, we will never be in a position to offset 100% the inflationary impact on people, but what we’re endeavouring to do through a €500million package is to give some alleviation to people as best we can.
“There is hopefully a temporary phenomenon here in terms of the inflationary cycle.
“We thought the best way to alleviate the pressure on people was through the measures that we took.”
Mr Martin defended giving the energy rebate to people for their holiday homes.
He said: “We wanted to do things as quickly as we can, to impact on people as quickly as we can, the mechanisms would simply have been too prolonged to identify, in terms of target that measure to certain income thresholds, so speed was a key priority.”
He added that, unfortunately, his Government will not be moving to abolish the USC tax, which was supposed to only be a temporary measure when it was first introduced after the economic crash in 2011.
“It [USC] will not be abolished, we have to be honest with people.”
