Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First, we recognise the enormous pressure on families and pensioners because of the cost-of-living crisis, which was fundamentally brought about by two major wars, namely, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 2026 Middle East conflict between the United States and Iran, which really has caused ripples across the entire world in terms of energy prices and knock-on effects on the cost of living.
Last year, we took very significant measures in the budget to protect the most vulnerable, including pensioners, and we will do similarly in the forthcoming budget next week. That is across the board in terms of interventions we have made on energy, which benefit pensioners, by the way, just as they do other sectors of the economy, in terms of the core pension itself and in the form of other measures that affect pensioners. We fully understand that they are under pressure, but the entirety of society, particularly low-income groups, is also under a lot of pressure because of the crisis.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30