Harris sees need to ‘move away from

SIMON Harris insists there is a need to “move away” from one-off Budget measures on the cost of living as one of the State's major suppliers announced sweeping price hikes for electricity.

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The Fine Gael leader said “help is coming” on the cost of living in the Budget but he added that one-off measures are “not a good way to run a country”.

Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland from the think-in, Mr Harris said: “We've got to move away from this kind of one-off ‘will I get, won't I get?'

“That's no way for a family to plan, no way for a business to plan.”

Several of the so-called cost-of-living measures, such as energy credits, have been features of successive budgets.

Pressed on whether he accepted that families had already factored such measures into their financial planning, Mr Harris said: