Targeted supports to the most vulnerable is needed in the upcoming budget to prevent households having to choose between food or heating, a Dublin TD has said.

Budget 2024 will be delivered on October 10 and there have been calls for a significant hike in core social welfare rates as the cost of living crisis continues to hammer households nationwide.

The Oireachtas Social Protection committee has recommended a 10% increase for all welfare payments in order for them to be benchmarked against a minimum essential standard of living (MESL).

The Vincentian MESL Research Centre warned in their pre-budget submission that anything less than a €27.50 hike to core social welfare rates will be a "real term cut".

Read more: Budget 2024: Everything we know so far about social welfare, pension, child benefit, and more

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon is urging the Government to implement this increase to social welfare payments in October's budget.

He told Dublin Live: "There should be a minimum expectation that in a wealthy country nobody should be living in the type of poverty where you often have to choose between heating you home or going without food.

“And that’s the reality that’s facing the upwards of 600,000 people in this country that are living in or at risk of poverty.

“At the very minimum we should be ensuring that nobody in this country goes without food. In my view, that comes down to the core social welfare rates."

The Dublin Central TD is calling for core social welfare rates to be adjusted in line with the minimum essential standard of living.

“That means that people can afford to heat their homes and feed themselves," he said. "I think that should be the minimum expectation that we have.

“Social welfare rates rising and falling in line with inflation is also something we should very seriously consider but I doubt that a Fine Gael Minister will."

Mr Gannon said he doesn’t believe this idea is “too outlandish”, pointing out the €350 payment given to those who lost their jobs during the pandemic.

“During Covid, when everyone lost their job we brought in an unemployment payment that was €350,” he said. “This acknowledged that core social welfare rates at that time weren’t suitable to live off.

“If it was €350 when everybody had to live off it, then the idea that people now are expected to live at €220 is outlandish and in some instances, cruel."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has promised households there will be some level of energy supports this winter, but Mr Gannon said there should “absolutely be a different approach” that sees the most vulnerable targeted.

“Last year’s energy supports of three grants of €200 given to all homes meant that there were 82,000 second homes receiving an energy grant.

“So imagine that, the way Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens organised that last year meant that absolutely all homes, regardless of whether a person has one, two, three, was a millionaire or otherwise, they got the same energy grant as somebody who was living in the depths of poverty.

“That’s excruciatingly unfair. Also, a lot of people would have said themselves that they didn’t need it and would have rather seen the money go to someone else to help them heat their home.

“It should have been targeted at people who were really struggling or had the potential to be really struggling."

He stressed that targeted interventions towards those most vulnerable such as single parents are essential to getting households out of poverty.

“A lone parent usually that’s a mother, are most at risk of and most likely to be experiencing poverty and are most likely then to have that poverty replicated for their children," Mr Gannon said.

“They absolutely need targeted, monetary interventions that are substantially more than what they’re getting at the minute.

“Poverty costs the State €4.5bn a year, according to St Vincent’s de Paul. This is something that can be a real benefit to the State if we can have a targeted intent to combat poverty.

“Leo Varadkar’s own tenure as Taoiseach began with a promise to eradicate child poverty. You can’t do that without eradicating poverty for the mother or the parent too.

“So if you’re serious about that, you do that through targeted monetary intervention, they need money.

“So I would relay that challenge to Leo Varadkar. This is potentially his last budget in charge and he made a commitment to eradicate child poverty.

“Whether that be an increase of €27-32 a week for core social welfare rates then so be it, that’s what people need."

While Housing Minister Darrah O'Brien has hinted that the €500 rent tax credit may be increased to €800 this year, Mr Gannon said greater rental protections are essential so that all tenants can actually claim it.

“We have one of the most ineffective rental protection policies in Europe," he said. "People are terrified to ensure that their landlord is registering with the RTB.

“If they’re not registered with the RTB, it’s very difficult to claim that money. Very few people living in precarious circumstances want to be challenging their landlord for fear they’ll be told to start packing up.

“Within that environment, the State needs to enhance renter protections."

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