Sinn Féin wants the Government to consider making a cash payment to hard-pressed families on top of the new energy credit.
The party will bring a motion before the Dáil tomorrow proposing a package of measures it says will get money into peoples pockets now.
It follows criticism of the Government’s package of measures announced last week to address the cost of living.
Carlow Kilkenny SF TD Kathleen Funchion says it’s frustrating that they just didn’t go far enough; “It’s kind of one size fits all and that’s not really a proper answer and I suppose when you the Government has been challenged on that they’re saying it’s due to time constraints but yet they’ve been talking about this since the start of December and the reality is people won’t get this money until March so they really should have had time to look at it and that’s why I suppose we put into our proposal the cash payments in relation to depending on what you’re earning so €200 for lower incomes and then €100 for what I suppose would be classed as a middle income”.
Deputy Funchion adds “So we would hope that they would accept what’s being said and I think it’s important to say, you know, when this is all first raised last week nearly everybody in the Opposition was saying the exact same thing, so it’s not just ourselves in Sinn Féin, there’s kinda united Opposition in relation to this and hopefully they will realise it because I’ve heard a lot of government reps over the week acknowledge that their proposals don’t go far enough so if they’re willing to acknowledge that well then there’s a proposal there on the table that goes further for people and I think they should be looking at that seriously”.
