Cuirim fáilte roimh na Little Blue Heroes. We are in very safe hands with outstanding people like them. I thank them for being here.

Households continue to be hammered left, right and centre by soaring prices with no let-up. With extortionate rent, big electricity and gas bills, high fuel prices, unaffordable childcare and runaway insurance premiums, prices are out of control. Workers and families are squeezed and forced to live week to week. They ask themselves when all of this will stop because they cannot keep up.

Nowhere is all of this clearer than when it comes to the weekly shop. A report published today by PwC found that 70% of Irish customers are extremely worried about the cost of food. This is just the latest in a series of reports confirming what people already know, which is that food prices are through the roof. Let us take a look at some of the basics. According to the CSO, in the past year alone, a pound of butter has gone up €1, a kilo of Irish cheddar cheese has gone up 57 cent and 2 l of milk has gone up 27 cent. Writing in The Irish Times last week, Conor Pope found that, according to figures provided to "Pricewatch", a kilo of chicken that cost €4.99 in 2022 now costs €11. That is just crazy. Many households are paying €3,000 a year more in the supermarket than they were in 2021. It is little wonder that families are finding it harder and harder to put food on the table and, in some cases, are cutting back on basics. People now feel serious pressure and anxiety as they push their trolleys to the checkout.

In May 2023, the Taoiseach's colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond, told the public that he had this situation under control. He puffed out his chest, called in the big supermarket chains and declared that they had just six weeks to get prices down. That was 110 weeks ago. Clearly the Minister of State failed to exert any real pressure on those retailers because he was duly and unceremoniously ignored and things have only gotten worse for customers at the checkouts. That was it. That single limp intervention was the entirety of the Government's effort to tackle runaway food prices. The Government could not get the job done so it just walked away and left households to feel the pain.

It seems the Government's latest plan is to do absolutely nothing, to stick its head in the sand and allow people to be ripped off week in and week out. So out of touch is the Taoiseach's Government that it digs in and refuses to bring forward supports to help hard-pressed households deal with these out-of-control prices. Its message to workers and families under enormous pressure is that they are on their own.

Tá praghsanna bia tar éis ardú go hard na spéire. Tá imní ar theaghlaigh gach seachtain nuair a théann siad chun siopadóireachta. Caithfidh an Rialtas a ghníomhú chun daoine a chosaint ó na costais ollmhóra seo.

Was it all just bull and bluster when the Government called in the big supermarket chains two years ago? Will the Taoiseach do anything at all to tackle soaring food prices? How on earth is it that he refuses to consider any cost-of-living supports when people are under such pressure just to make ends meet?

I join with the Ceann Comhairle in welcoming our special guests from County Tipperary, our Little Blue Heroes, who have come to watch proceedings here in the Dáil. They had a busy morning. They had a Garda escort and were greeted by the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Michael Murphy. I was delighted to attend the Little Blue Heroes ball in Killarney earlier this month. I thank the organisation and all those who support it for the extraordinary work they do for children and families. I pay a particularly warm tribute to An Garda Síochána. This entire charity emanated from a number of gardaí and retired gardaí. Their volunteerism and commitment are second to none. They reflect the degree to which An Garda Síochána is embedded in every community in this country. We are fortunate and thanks be to God An Garda Síochána is so embedded because it gives us the police force we have.

The Government is very conscious of price increases and the cost of living more generally. Even though inflation has fallen and is down to 2%, the bottom line is that the elevated level of inflation, arising out of the post-Covid situation and the war on Ukraine, has meant that food prices are very high. That is acknowledged.

We have provided substantial support over recent budgets, which were decried by the Opposition, with significant financial support to households and businesses. The Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, published its annual report today. It found that the temporary cost-of-living supports such as the pandemic unemployment payment, energy credits and lump-sum welfare payments played a critical role in reducing poverty risk among vulnerable households and that without those interventions Ireland's at-risk-of-poverty rate would have increased to 13% in 2022 and 14% in 2023. Instead it fell to 10.6% and 11.7%, respectively. The supports we brought in were effective for their time without any question.

We have made it clear that budget 2026 will focus on measures that are sustainable and maintainable in the long term, with a particular focus on child poverty, disability and, of course, housing. In addition to those cost-of-living measures we have brought in, last April we extended the VAT reduction to 9% on gas and electricity and maintained the reduction on others. That has benefited households by about €70 each for gas and €55 each for electricity. That is further supported by the 40% reduction in the renewable electricity public service obligation levy for 2025 and 2026 announced on 14 June by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien.

From 1 June, women will receive hormone replacement therapy, HRT, free of charge. From September 2025, free school books will be extended to all students in post-primary schools. That was a major measure that the Deputy ignored completely in her presentation. All primary schools are eligible for free hot school meals. These are significant measures that are long term and that have had a real benefit in terms of bringing down costs. Free public transport for children, including those aged five to eight, will be introduced later this year. We have also acted to shield workers from a higher tax burden by adjusting income tax credits and bands in successive budgets. We are a significant importer of energy and food produce and that has resulted in significant additional costs associated with transport, logistics and our small market size. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, has engaged with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to engage with the industry and provide an up-to-date assessment of it.

Some 70% of people are concerned about food prices. That is what I am raising with the Taoiseach. I gave him some examples earlier; let me give him some more CSO data. Over five years, the price of sugar has gone up by 54%; fillets of cod, 55%; pork sausages, 21%; lamb, 48%; and spaghetti, 46%. This is the reality people face every week when they go to the supermarket to do their shop. People tell us the kind of pressure that is putting on them and they rightly expect that the Government will intervene. I ask quite simply, in respect of people's grocery bills, their weekly shop, what does the Government propose to do? Was it just bluster or was it just performative two years ago when the Minister of State summoned in the big supermarket chains and told them what was what? Nothing changed. People are still to the pin of their collar. I would like the Taoiseach to be clear. What does he propose to do now in respect of soaring costs and prices that are causing real pressure for families across the country?

We will deal with this issue in the budget, but consumer price inflation, as measured by the European Union harmonised index of consumer prices, HICP index, has eased significantly over the past two years, with the annual inflation rate in May 2025 standing at 1.4% compared with 2% in May of last year. That is below the 2% target rate of inflation set by the ECB. In April, Ireland had the sixth lowest rate of inflation among the 27 EU countries, which is quite a remarkable outcome given the strength of domestic economic activity here vis-à-vis other European countries.

Does the Taoiseach do a weekly shop?

Additionally, with inflation expected to grow by 2% this year, nominal wage growth-----

Obviously not.

Clearly he does not.

The Taoiseach to respond without interruption.

-----is set to reach 5.5%. That will result in real wage growth of between 3% and 3.5% this year. When inflation was high, we did not have that to offset it. We now have it at significant levels. That is an effective way of dealing with this issue, in addition to the measures we will take in the budget to deal with that.

Does the Taoiseach do his weekly shop? No, he does not.