Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 May 2026
233. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department has assessed the cumulative impact of inflation since 2011 on the disposable income of older taxpayers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32855/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAccording to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), the average household income of households where the head of the household was aged over 65 was €27,821in the reference year 2011. In reference year 2025, the figure was €53,027. This represents a nominal increase in disposable income of over 90 per cent. Over the period 2011 to 2025, consumer prices, as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) increased by just over 25 per cent. Taking this into account, the increase in disposable income in real (i.e. inflation adjusted) terms over this period is over 52 per cent. Further details on the SILC and HICP are available from the CSO.
Each year the Department of Finance conducts a distributional analysis to examine the impact of proposed tax and welfare measures on a range of household types. This analysis is conducted throughout the decision-making process, and an ex-post distributional analysis of the final budget package is published in ‘Beyond GDP – Quality of Life Assessment’ on Budget day.
More generally, I am confident that the measures introduced in successive budgets by this Government and previous Governments have helped to drive improvements in living standards.
