Workers and families are experiencing a really tough start to the new year. The post-Christmas period is always a time of financial pressure but the soaring cost of living sees households really up against it. People are due to be hit with massive energy bills as Government supports are swallowed up. Parents are finding it difficult to put food on the table as the price of groceries has skyrocketed and households continue to cut back on the basics just to get by. The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away. For many households, in fact, the situation is getting worse. People continue to make hard decisions just to make it to the end of the week. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has said it has received the highest number of calls from families seeking help since the economic crash. The society is also providing record levels of support to students and young people. A poll conducted for Virgin TV News captures the reality of this crisis. The vast majority continue to stress about the impact of soaring costs on their lives. Many say they will not have enough to cover spending on essentials this month and more than a fifth say that their children have had to go without meals or clothing.

Adding to the pressure, the ECB is set to hike interest rates for a fifth time next week. The hike will mean an immediate blow for those on tracker mortgages. The stream of hikes has left these households thousands of euro worse off. We know that those who had their mortgages sold to vulture funds are being aggressively exploited and battered by interest rate increases. Yet, even though there are more hikes to come, the Government refuses to bring forward any mortgage relief measures. People are genuinely worried about what is coming down the tracks as Government supports come to an end. When Sinn Féin public representatives are out in our communities, people constantly come to the door with their extortionate gas bills in hand and they are very worried about the next one. As things stand, at the end of February the reduced VAT rate for gas and electricity comes to an end as does the reduced rate of excise duty for petrol, diesel and home heating oil and the ban on energy disconnections. Four weeks later, the moratorium on evictions runs out. This presents the perfect storm waiting to happen for workers and families.

The Government has said that it will meet in the coming weeks to discuss the future of cost-of-living supports but after two years of being hammered by soaring living costs, households need clarity and certainty about what is going to happen next. They need that clarity and certainty from the Taoiseach now. He has said there will be no cliff-edge but people need to see the plan. Tá an ghéarchéim sa chostas maireachtála ag cur daoine faoi bhrú dáiríre. Caithfidh an Rialtas a chinntiú go bhfaigheann teaghlaigh an tacaíocht a theastaíonn. Tá oibrithe agus teaghlaigh ar chiumhais na haille agus ní féidir leis sin tarlú.

My questions are these. Will the Taoiseach provide struggling households today with certainty they need? Can he set out his plan? Will he commit to extending the supports and protections that are coming to an end? Will he please examine options to introduce targeted, tailored and time-bound mortgage interest relief for struggling mortgage holders?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The cost of living is a matter that concerns huge numbers of individuals, families and businesses across the country. It is very much the issue that is coming up on the doors for our public representatives as well, when we are knocking on doors and speaking to people, and not other matters. I have to say that I agree with Deputy McDonald's assessment. A lot of people, families and businesses are struggling with the cost of living. Tá go leor daoine faoi bhrú. Tá an costas maireachtála an-ard agus cabhróidh an Rialtas.

Incomes are rising in Ireland but the cost of living is rising faster. What that means in real terms is that a lot of people, if not most people, are worse off this year than they were last year. We are seeing inflation slowing. Inflation is not as high as it was a few months ago but there is a big difference between inflation slowing down and prices going down. It is just that prices are going up less fast than they were earlier but that is not a good situation to be in. Prices are continuing to rise, notwithstanding the fact that inflation is not rising as fast as it was before.

As I mentioned, the Government is here to help and wants to help. We can do so because our economy is strong, because of the economic policies pursued by this Government in recent years and also because our public finances are in good order because of the good work done by the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform, and Finance, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath, in particular, in recent years. What have we done in the past three weeks? We have significantly reduced the cost of childcare, by around 25%, which has helped a lot of families. We have increased the pension by €12 per week. In fact, all weekly welfare payments have been increased by €12. Approximately 70,000 elderly people now qualify for the fuel allowance who did not qualify last year. Those applications are still coming in and I encourage people to apply. Income taxes have gone down and people will see that in their pay slips this month, if they have not already. The rent tax credit is now available to hundreds of thousands of renters, at €500 per renter, per taxpayer, or €1,000 per couple. If three people are renting together, they each get the €500 credit. A lot of people have not yet applied for that and I really encourage them to do so. All of these measures are permanent and do not end at the end of February.

I have just given the Deputy an example of five things that the Government has done just in the past three weeks to help people with the cost of living, which are permanent and which do not expire at the end of February.

I want to make that clear. The Deputy is correct to say that at the end of February a number of measures will expire. I have said, as has the Tánaiste, that there will not be a cliff edge in that regard. We will not be able to continue everything as we just do not have the resources to do so, but there will not be a cliff edge. What will happen in the coming weeks is the relevant Ministers will sit down with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Finance and we will work out which measures we can continue and which ones we cannot. We will try to do that as quickly as possible, in the next couple of weeks, so that people have certainty long before the end of February. That is the work we are doing at the moment.

I thank the Taoiseach. Notwithstanding the measures the Government has taken, people are still struggling, as I have described. The Taoiseach has confirmed that he also recognises that. All along, we have said to the Taoiseach and his Government that the one-off measures that were introduced to assist people were, of course, welcomed by people. All help is good help when you are under pressure. What people really have needed and still need, however, is a sense of certainty and an ability to plan. They need to know where their household will be and how they will provide for themselves and their children at the end of next month and the month after that. While the Taoiseach's acknowledgement of the potential cliff edge is welcome, as is his assertion that there will be no cliff edge, we need more than that now. People need to see the colour of his money. They have to see the shape of the plan. I again ask whether the reduced VAT rate for gas and electricity will come to an end or whether the Government will continue it. Likewise, will the reduction in excise duty on petrol, diesel and home heating oil be continued? What about the moratorium on energy disconnections and the moratorium on evictions? People need that sense of a plan and certainty now.

I thank the Deputy. Those are very fair and legitimate questions to ask but I cannot answer them today because the Government has not made decisions in respect of the measures that expire at the end of February. We will do so, however, and we will make sure that people have certainty long before the end of February comes. What we have done to help people with the cost of living is a combination of one-off and temporary measures and also permanent measures. That should be acknowledged. The reduction in the cost of childcare is permanent and I would like to go further again in the budget later this year. The increase in pensions and weekly welfare payments of an extra €12 a week is also permanent, as are the extension of the fuel allowance, the reduction in income taxes and the rent tax credit. The increase in the national minimum wage, above the rate of inflation last year, will be built on next year. In addition, there are increases in public sector pay and in some of the parts of the private sector that are governed by employment regulation orders. So long as this Government is in office and we pursue the economic policies that we have been pursuing, keep the public finances in order and there is no change of Government, people can be confident that those measures will be permanent.

We heard all that before. People are still struggling.