Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Doorley for the presentation, which had a lot of information in it. The rising costs of everyday household budgets are putting pressure on many people I deal with. An awful lot of people are going to be paying extra for diesel to get in and out of work where public transport is not available. The costs of electricity bills and so on are also rising. The carbon tax is a visible measure and people will see it coming through on a tank of diesel. How much of an impact do our guests think that will have on the overall picture of inflation? Dr. Doorley also pointed to external influences. Energy and gas, in particular, have been identified as drivers of inflation. Which will have the bigger influence and what extent of influence will the carbon tax and international prices have?

The ESRI examined the possibility of those prices levelling off, possibly by spring 2022. Is that going to be enough to ease pressure here or is it already going to be driving other costs across the household budget at that stage? How comfortable are our guests that this inflation pressure is temporary? Is there a longer-term element to it?

Dr. Doorley pointed to housing, whether buying or renting. We have seen a continued increase in pricing there. Would our guests expect that to drive further pressure across the economy through increased wages and so on?

The witnesses highlighted that Ireland has been more resilient here than across the EU and that there is more of a bounce-back. They suggest there is almost a mismatch. Would they expect that such a mismatch would continue? If it did, and there were measures taken across the EU to deal with inflation and we are already mismatched with Europe, how would that affect us here? What would be the long-term outlook of something like that?