A Sinn Féin TD has accused Government politicians of "sitting on their hands" when the public are "at their wits end" due to rising energy, food and mortgages.
Longford Westmeath TD Sorca Clarke said people cannot stretch anymore when Ireland's electricity and gas prices are the highest in Europe.
Speaking during Leaders' Questions, she told the Dáil about a 90-year-old women who spent her savings on an energy bill rather than a headstone for her late husband.
Deputy Clarke said the Government was acting like a spectator - proving to the electorate that Ireland cannot afford to have the coalition in office any more.
In reply, Minister for Justice Simon Harris said it was simply "not true" that the Government was sitting on its hands.
He said last year the coalition announced €4 billion in measures, across a whole range of areas, to assist people with the cost-of-living crisis.
On energy, Minister Harris said "every single household" secured three energy credits; eligibility to the fuel allowance had been increased by 80,000 people; and there had been bonus payments as well.
Minister Harris said the Government's solution was to introduce a windfall tax - the legislation which will be passed before the summer recess - and will ensure that if energy companies "continue to profiteer" then the Government is going to tax them and use the revenue to help customers.
The minister also told the Dáil that the Government maintains an "unrelenting focus" on driving costs down for consumers.
He defended the Retail Forum noting that after it, "two major retailers dropped the price of bread".
He was responding to Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik who dismissed the Government's Retail Forum as "utterly toothless".
"We are seeing a pricing market that is deeply unfair currently to consumers," she said, and called on the Government to support her party's proposed legislation on the issue.
