Sir, – The present inflation crisis and increase in energy costs affect everyone. The Government is searching for solutions to address this issue fairly.
Perhaps the time is ripe to introduce a basic universal income. An initial monthly payment to every man woman and child in the country of say €50 would cost around €3 billion per annum.
This would serve as a pilot scheme, testing the universal income concept, which if successful, could be rolled out appropriately.
Such monthly payments are already being made as part of household packages to the over-70s, so the infrastructure template to roll this out is already there.
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It would not preclude the introduction of more targeted measures to those most in need. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD HORGAN,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 6.
