I share the concerns and questions voiced by Deputies McDonald and Shortall about public nursing homes but I want to raise the issue of the cost of living. A recently published Red C survey outlined some of the struggles people still face with the cost-of-living crisis. It found that 30% of people struggle to make ends meet, with young people and elderly people being hit the worst. Only 9% of people have not had to make any changes to their spending while 70% of people have had to reduce spending in the face of the cost-of-living crisis. This is the highest figure out of any of the 36 countries involved in the study. Bin charges are going up, rents are still skyrocketing, the price of groceries has gone up by 15% across the board and will not come back down, and standards of living in the country have dropped in three of the past four quarters. Women's Aid has said it has seen an increase in calls about domestic abuse, particularly relating to economic abuse. Homelessness is at an all-time high despite the eviction ban. I could not believe my ears when I heard the Minister say yesterday that homelessness was levelling off. This is cold comfort to the 11,632 people in emergency accommodation or the 90 asylum seekers sent out onto the streets last week. Inflation is still at a high of 9% while interest rates on tracker mortgages have rocketed. My recent gas bill was €780 when it was €347 this time last year with the same amount of units used. How are people on low wages supposed to pay these bills?

The economy may have grown by 12.2% but people are not feeling it. There is no reflection of growth in people's pay packets. Our economy is in no way set up to reflect this growth in ordinary people's lives. We hear this every day in my constituency office. Those who have had it hard for a long time are being hit the worst. While the supports put in place by this Government have helped in some way, they are not targeted enough. Age Action has said time and again that social welfare payments needed to increased by €20 in the last budget, which did not happen. The increase was €12, which was in effect a cut in people's pay packets. Age Action also called for supports to be more targeted.

The stress and hardship caused by the cost-of-living crisis are very real for many people. Many people must worry every day about how they will put food on the table, keep the lights on and keep a roof over their families' heads. The Taoiseach said there will not be a cliff edge when the cost-of-living supports end. People still need help. They are worried about losing the little help they have had and losing their homes when the eviction ban ends in April.

How will the Taoiseach guarantee that there is no cliff-edge when so many people are already on one?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. It is fair to say that the rising cost of living is biting hard. It is affecting many people and families who are struggling to make ends meet, notwithstanding the help that has come from the Government in recent months. Inflation is slowing down and it is good to see that prices are not rising as fast as they were a few months ago, but they are still rising. That means that people are continuing to get worse off if their incomes do not rise as fast as prices are rising. We acknowledge that. It is important to say that a number of actions were taken in the past few weeks to bring down the cost of living for people and they are permanent. They include the reduction in the cost of childcare, the rent credit which people can now claim back in rent payments, of €500 or €1,000 for a couple, the increase in the pension of €12 a week and the increase of €12 a week in all weekly welfare payments. Those are all permanent changes. Tens of thousands more pensioners now qualify for the fuel allowance. Income taxes are going down, which people will see in their payslips this month. There has been an increase in the national minimum wage. Most people on low pay have seen a knock-on increase, which has been broadly in line with inflation. As well as that, another energy credit of €200 per household is due in March. Many things are being done by the Government to help people with the cost of living.

As the Tánaiste and I have said, there will not be a cliff edge at the end of February. A number of measures that were due to end at the end of February are now under review. We acknowledge that we will need to do something to help people with the rising cost of living throughout the spring. We have not made any firm decisions on that. The key Ministers involved will sit down next week to look at options with a view to making an announcement by the middle of the month in order that people have certainty going into March.

The Taoiseach says that inflation is slowing down. It is still at a high of 8.9% or 9%, depending on who one gets figures from. People are still facing huge costs in their daily lives. The end of February is only four weeks away. The review will be in two weeks. The Government will have to come out of the box very quickly to explain what supports it will give to people. Will there be another cost-of-living double payment to assist people? A gentleman who is 69 years of age came into my office the other day. He had to have the heating on over Christmas and through the winter because his wife has a medical issue. He is facing a huge gas bill, nearly 60% higher than last year. What is that man going to do? He was nearly in tears in relation to how he is going to deal with the debt. Low-paid workers are going to feel that pressure too. Will the Taoiseach look at a mini-budget and increase social welfare payments by another €8 across the board, as Age Action Ireland has called for, and for supports to be more targeted for people who need them? I hope that what comes out in two weeks will be effective in addressing people's cost of living. Some 30% of people are still struggling to make ends meet. They are the people who should get supports.

We need to consider a number of options. It probably would not be useful for me to speculate on the options now because it might just raise expectations. We will discuss it next week. I agree that the measures need to be targeted. It might be the case that there will still be some universal measures but, generally speaking, they need to be targeted at those who need them the most, those who are struggling the most and those on fixed incomes. I agree with the Deputy on that point. Let us not forget that it is because of the strength of our economy and because the public finances are in a good position that we are able to intervene again to help people with the rising cost of living. In other countries where different economic policies have been pursued, Governments are not able to do that. They have gone back to austerity and people are on strike in many cases. In my view, it is a simple fact that, because we pursued the economic policies that we did and looked after public finances as we have, we were able to help people in the budget that has just gone by and will be able to help people again in the spring.