Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for those responses. I wish to ask about budgetary scenarios having regard to all that is happening as we face into the next budget. I know that is like being asked to look into a crystal ball. I refer to the pressures on existing contracts with suppliers and business people that have been entered into. For instance, a person who has a bus company contacted me today. Two years ago, that person entered into a five-year deal with Bus Éireann to provide bus services at a rate that was based on the price they were paying for diesel at the time. Now there is the issue of what they will have to pay for it now. With the constant pressure on businesses that have entered into those types of contracts, are those businesses sustainable? Will they disappear, as it were, from the market or is that a major risk? Should we be budgeting to support those businesses with fixed-price contracts for three to five years, whether they be capital or service projects whose costs have greatly increased?