Taoiseach Micheál Martin has urged people to be more “energy efficient” as Energy Minister, Eamon Ryan, called for people to spend less time in the shower to help cut electricity bills.
Mr Ryan also wants people to slow down when driving to reduce fuel consumption.
Mr Martin said he would not be “dismissive” of the Green Party leader’s suggestions.
The Government has introduced a €200 energy rebate for every home in the country that will soften the blow of soaring bills in the coming weeks, along with cuts in excise duty on fuel among other measures.
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But the benefits have already been wiped out for most homes as fuel costs have risen so sharply this year already.
And the Taoiseach has ruled out any further Government supports - in the short term - for households struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living continues to skyrocket.
Mr Martin has indicated that this is it for now as he said that “knee jerk reactions” were not the best way to tackle the crisis.
He said the Government: “cannot take measures every single week in response to every single price increase that may occur.”
Households have been hammered by soaring bills, with electricity and gas going up by 20% and 30% alone in the past few weeks and inflation heading for 8%.
Speaking at the launch of 1,000 new jobs at financial services company, Workday, in Dublin city centre, the Taoiseach said: “The Government has allocated about €2billion since the budget to address cost of living issues and that has ranged from some universal measures, the €200 cut in electricity bills, but also in targeting the fuel allowance and the fuel allowance grant and also reducing transport fees and a number of other measures.
“So the Government has already gone farther than other EU countries in terms of dealing with cost of living issues.”
Mr Martin added: “Energy efficiency makes sense any time of the year, crisis or no crisis, so let’s not be so dismissive of that (Mr Ryan’s showering and driving suggestions) either.
“Energy efficiency is an important issue, hence we are putting so much money into homes to enable people to adapt their homes to have greater energy efficiency which means less costs.”
Meanwhile, Mr Ryan told RTE’s Morning Ireland that The Government's priority will be to help people at most risk of fuel poverty, through a set of specific measures to be announced soon
He said: “We need to target particularly those in fuel poverty.
"Some of those measures will take time, some of them will be better placed for the budget, where we really need to look at how the social welfare system can kick in, and it will take time to get that right to work.
"We need to focus on energy efficiency. All the (international) advice there is that the next phase really has to be about energy efficiency, helping people to save money with some practical measures to cut the bill.
“So we'll bring to Government in the next two weeks, some of those measures, some of them are in planning systems, some are in regulatory, and there will be a campaign to help explain to the public what are the simple ways in which bills can be cut."
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