Tánaiste Leo Varadkar defended the government's decision to introduce universal measures such as the once-off €200 credit deducted from Irish household's electricity bills earlier this year.
Speaking on Virgin Media's The Tonight Show, the Tánaiste said having only targeted measures would not benefit middle income families who are also "feeling the squeeze".
He said: "You can have targeted measures, and you can have universal measures. So universal measures that help everyone like €200 taken off every households electricity bill and you can have targeted measures like we did on the same day, which was to pay an additional fuel allowance payment to those who are most in need".
