Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has promised that this month’s budget will “significantly soften the blow” of the soaring cost of living. 

Speaking from Kilkenny, where Fine Gael TDs and members have gathered for a two day think in, An Tánaiste said he was struck by how many people were “very worried about their bills” while he was out knocking on doors. 

“I can give them the reassurance that the Government is going to help them,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“We’re here to help, we’re here to make sure that we can soften the blow significantly of the rising cost of living.” 

An energy bill. Picture by: Andrew Paterson / Alamy Stock Photo

He pledged Fine Gael would approach budget negotiations with three aims in mind: 

“First of all, help with energy bills for households and also for businesses - because we don’t want jobs lost because of high energy bills,” he said. 

“Secondly, an income tax package where you keep more of what you earn and if you get a pay rise this year you don’t lose half of it in tax. 

“And third, targeted help for the most vulnerable; for pensioners, for carers, for the disabled, for families, people who are going to be hardest hit by these rising bills.” 

Structural costs

He also said there was a need to deal with the many costs in Irish society that are “structurally high” - such as childcare and third level education. 

There has been discussion about whether the budget would see the Government cut students fees and while the Tánaiste said he could not “make any promises at this stage”, he hinted it was likely: 

“We follow the British and American model where it’s quite expensive to go to college and you pay college fees,” he continued. 

“We would like to see a reduction in the student contribution and we’d also like to see an increase in the grant.” 

Blackouts

Finally, when asked whether he was confident about whether the lights would be able to stay on this winter, Mr Varadkar was emphatic: 

“Yes, I am. Nobody in Government wants to rule out the possibility of blackouts,” before adding that the chance of them happening was “very, very low.”

Main image: Tánaiste Leo Varadkar speaking to the media. Picture by: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie