Sinn Féin has said energy prices should be frozen and "pegged back" to levels they were at last June.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party is also proposing that any direct cash payments people get should be linked to their income.
This would see somebody who earns less than €21,000 a year receive a €500 payment - while those on €40,000 would get just over €400.
Ms McDonald told Newstalk Breakfast this crisis is unlike any other.
"There is no doubt that the scale of this crisis is immense, and it's way beyond anything even experienced back in the 1970s.
"The proportion of the response needs to reflect just how deep this crisis is."
She said this is particularly acute around energy costs.
"We are proposing a multi-pronged approach - firstly involving a capping of electricity prices.
"We want them pegged back to the level of June 2021 and held there for the winter months.
"That's the time when the average household uses about 70%-75% of their annual energy use.
"It's an emergency measure, I believe it's essential to get costs down - but also to afford a level of security and certainty to families and to households".
'This isn't a vanity project'
Ms McDonald explained that under their plans, direct cash payments would also be made to individuals - rather than households.
"They would be linked to the level of income that people are on.
"So we are proposing - for example - somebody who earns less than €21,000 per annum would get a €500 payment, if you're on €40,000 you get €407 and so on".
And she said this isn't about political point scoring, but necessity.
"This isn't actually a sort of vanity project between Government and the opposition, as to who can outshine who.
"This is a real crisis for people day-on-day who cannot meet their bills.
"And I heard the Government comment - I think it was the Tánaiste rather than the Taoiseach - talking about leaving things in the tank, and not emptying the tank.
"[This] sounded to my ear as softening people up for delivering less rather than more.
"It's important for me to say, and for all of us to recognise, there's families and households across the State and the tank is empty", she added.
