The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, will be taking Leaders' Questions for the first time.

Workers and families are struggling and families are struggling to keep up with sharp increases in grocery costs and households are being fleeced, day in and day out. Food price hikes have hit people's pockets hard and still show no sign of coming down.

Last week, the Government met food retailers and the Taoiseach said the Government would have a very stark message to deliver. In advance of the meeting, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said he was preparing a dossier on price gouging that he was going to confront retailers with. We now hear this did not in fact happen. This meeting was talked up by the Government, but appears to have amounted to nothing. The Government tried to paint up the meeting as a big success but the reality is now clear. The upshot of it all is that nothing has changed for consumers, who continue to face these crippling costs. This was really nothing more than a cosy chat between Government and the retailers for the sake of optics. It was yet another PR exercise to give the impression the Government is doing something on extortionate food prices, when the truth is it is doing nothing at all.

Last week, I and others raised the question of profiteering and price gouging by food retailers with the Taoiseach and he dismissed the idea out of hand. Incredibly, he then went on national television and said there was in fact evidence of profiteering. The place to raise profiteering by food retailers was not in a television interview, but in the meeting with the retailers on Wednesday, face to face. The Government now says that there is price gouging. What is the Government going to do about it? Will it publish the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond's report? Will it give the report to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC?

Last week, Sinn Féin put forward a substantial plan that would make a big difference by cutting food costs for consumers and the Government accepted there were some good things in our plan. One of the proposals was to get the CCPC to move on price gouging. It is urgent this now happens. The Government cannot sit on its hands while workers and families pick up the bill.

Tá ardú as cuimse imithe ar phraghsanna bia agus tá an Rialtas ag suí timpeall ag déanamh faic. Ní laghdóidh comhrá deas le miondíoltóirí bia na praghsanna. Ní mór don Rialtas idirghabháil dhíreach a dhéanamh le cinntiú go gcuirtear costais a shábháiltear ar aghaidh i bhfoirm praghsanna laghdaithe ag an scipéad airgid.

It is time for the Government to get its act together and deliver for hard-pressed households. The Taoiseach has stated on behalf of the Government that there is evidence of profiteering. What is its plan to tackle it and how will the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission get to grips with price gouging? What other actions will the Government take in the here and now to get food prices down at the till? When will consumers see prices decrease?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I agree with her first point, that is, food prices have increased. Any person doing his or her weekly shop can see that clearly. I can see it myself. I was in a shop only yesterday and could see where the price of many products had increased, such as for example, nappy wipes. The consumer is looking for special offers but there are not as many special offers as there were. There are fewer items in the basket, yet it still costs more. I recognise that the cost of the weekly shop has increased.

However, the Deputy is trying to portray the Government as sitting on its hands and doing nothing, but that is not the case. We have provided billions of euro in support last year and this year to help people. Only a couple of weeks ago, my Department issued a further €200 lump sum payment to our pensioners, carers, people on disability payments and those on the working family payment. As the Minister for Social Protection, my priority is to look after vulnerable groups like our pensioners and carers. That is why we had the double payment for pensioners last year and a €500 payment for carers and people with disabilities. It is also why we extended the fuel allowance for the over-70s and increased core social welfare payments by €12, the largest increase since 2000.

Sometimes, the Deputy will have to ask herself who pays for this. I will tell her who pays for it – the workers of this country, the taxpayers, the people who get up every day to do their day’s work. They are the ones the Deputy forgets about when she calls in the Dáil for more spending here and there. That is not the way the world works. Someone has to pay for it.

I want to support the people who pay for everything. That is why, in a couple of weeks’ time,-----

It is the wrong question the Minister is answering.

-----we will give a €100 bonus payment to every child on child benefit. This will be on top of the double child benefit that we paid last December.

The Government is supporting working families. We are trying to put money back into the pockets, which is why we cut the income tax rate in January.

Price gouging.

I am getting around to that.

The Minister, without interruption, please.

I just want to make clear what we are doing to help people address the increase in the cost of living. There is a broad range of measures across the board. We have been trying to help people. We understand their concerns.

The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, got the retailers into a room and met them. Since then, we have suddenly started hearing that some supermarkets are cutting their prices.

That happened before the meeting.

Some have cut the price of bread.

What about nappy wipes?

Some have cut the price of butter. We want to see more of that. On top of that-----

The Deputies might laugh, but a woman or a grandmother like me knows why someone buys nappy wipes. It is because people need them if they have small children. The women who will get the extra €100-----

There are no extra payments for-----

-----next month in their child benefit payments might appreciate it, so do not be laughing at that.

Hear, hear.

Please, can we have the Minister, without interruption?

On top of that, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coveney, is meeting the CCPC to discuss the retail sector. The Deputy knows we cannot set prices. Like last year, everyone wanted to scaremonger about the price of petrol and diesel, but their prices are back down now. This situation can be cyclical. However, we agree with the Deputy that the cost of living has increased. We are doing everything we can to address it.

As I have said, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is meeting with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to discuss the retail sector very shortly.

Last year, when costs at the pumps were skyrocketing, nobody was scaremongering. That was a reality that every person experienced when going to fill his or her vehicle. The Minister and I are in agreement. I do my weekly shop as well. We see with our own eyes, do we not, the evidence of increased costs. It is an absolute disaster for people on small or fixed incomes. People are really struggling. We know this. The Taoiseach has said that profiteering is happening. He made that statement. I want to know what the Government is doing about it. Will it publish the dossier compiled by the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond? What is the ask of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission? Has the Minister of State's dossier gone to the commission? The Minister says that the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will meet with it. Is this another chat for the optics or will it trigger real action? The Taoiseach has said that profiteering and price-gouging are now a reality. That is not acceptable. What is the Government's plan to address and get to grips with that and to make it stop?

We have been clear; there cannot be profiteering on the back of hard-pressed Irish shoppers. I absolutely agree with the Deputy on that. We cannot have that. Nothing is off the table. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, is considering a suite of measures, for example, more transparency on profits in Ireland, and is meeting with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, which has powers to investigate whether there is price-gouging. That is its role. The Minister will be meeting with the commission next week or the following week. I do not have the date but he is going to go through all of those issues with the CCPC. We have to make sure that the Irish consumer is not being disadvantaged.