Dr. Mark Cassidy:

I would not agree with that. According to the figures, by far the largest proportion of the increase in wealth relates to housing wealth. The main distinction that could be drawn would be between those who have owned houses throughout recent years during the period of this increase in wealth against those who have not owned houses.

The second large increase has related to household savings. There has been something of a distributional impact there. Household savings have increased significantly since the outbreak of Covid and they have been concentrated among those sectors of the economy that have been less severely affected by Covid, where people have not lost their jobs but have not had the same opportunities to spend, so they have accumulated significant savings. At the other end of the spectrum, those parts of the economy that were first to close did not accumulate the same level of savings and they tend to be dominated by lower-income workers. Lower-income workers did not have the same opportunities to save as did higher-income workers.

In regard to the increase in the value of other financial assets, Ireland holds a very small share of financial assets outside of bank accounts and of property, which of course is non-financial. Shares and so on constitute a very small overall proportion of the wealth in comparison with other countries and account for only a small proportion of the overall increase in wealth during that period. It is true equity markets did well over a number of years, although not over recent years. The current crisis is different from other fluctuations in oil prices whereby if oil prices increase, the oil producers make money, and vice versa. This is complicated by the fact that many of the oil producers will have been negatively affected by developments in Russia too. They may pull out of Russia and their businesses may be affected. It will take a while to understand the implications of the current developments in Ukraine for energy companies generally. As for the second part of the Deputy's question, suggesting the increase in wealth that has been recorded reflects the increase in value of shares in energy and oil companies, no, I really do not see that..