Leo Varadkar has said there will be “no big bazooka” measure from Government to ease the cost of living crisis for ordinary people.
But he said that “nothing was off the table” for what the Government could do to ease the pain of the skyrocketing cost of living.
The Tánaiste was speaking as pressure continues to grow on the Government to suspend or defer a carbon tax increase due on May 1st that will send energy prices soaring higher again.
READ MORE: Micheal Martin puts Dr Tony Holohan's appointment to taxpayer-funded Trinity College role on hold
Mr Varadkar promised that there would be some sort of offset measures to neutralise the hurt in the pocket that will be caused by the new price hikes - which will see another €20 on a home heating oil tank refill and €1.50 extra a month on your gas bill.
But he would not get into the details of what concrete measures we will see just yet.
The three Government leaders, Mr Varadkar, the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and Green chief, Eamon Ryan, are meeting on Monday to discuss what can be done.
They will be joined at this crunch meeting by the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath.
Speaking ahead of this at the launch of a new HealthBeacon labs facility in Dublin on Friday, Mr Varadkar said: “There are a lot of costs that the Government can influence that we could help people with that might make more sense in doing, and be more sustainable longer term, than responding to energy prices going up and down.
“That means helping people to pay those increased bills.
"Ultimately what we need is an anti-inflation strategy that’s about bringing down the cost of living, not just chasing the cost of living upwards."
He added: “We want to take some additional actions, but in particular, what we decided we want to do is offset the increase in carbon tax that happens on May 1.
“We want to do something to offset that, but that’ll be the intention.
“Now, it’s not going to be another big bazooka measure.
“We’re not in that position at the moment.
“We don’t want to get into the situation whereby we’re borrowing money to help people reduce their bills, because ultimately, in the long run, that’s just a con.
"Nothing's off the table because the cost of living is rising very fast.
"For the first time in a very long time, a lot of people in the country are seeing a real reduction in their living standards because their pay or their pensions are not going up as fast as the cost of living is going up.
“And I think where Government can protect the standard of living — we can't always do it — but where the government can protect people's standard of living, the government should, and that's what we've done to date."
READ MORE: Leo Varadkar pledges measures to 'offset' carbon tax rise within weeks as cost of living soars
To get the latest political news and analysis to your inbox every week, sign up to Ciara Phelan's free Party Lines newsletter
