Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming. It has been an interesting discussion so far. Unfortunately, I have had to pop in between different meetings. If I repeat something, please let me know. These are extremely difficult times. It is interesting to see the conversation in the media. Even before the invasion of Ukraine, there was a conversation about rising inflation. At that time, many media commentators seemed to think that interest rates would rise in the European Central Bank, ECB, although it was clear that it would not increase them. The witnesses speak about rising inflation and the underlying causes being supply bottlenecks for energy and so on. I do not know how making borrowing more expensive and reducing economic activity addresses that. We already have the second highest mortgage interest rates in the EU, at more than double the EU average. January saw the typical new mortgage rate increase by 0.7%, which was the largest monthly increase in almost five years. High mortgage rates add more than €2,200 a year to the cost of living in Ireland. Does an interest rate increase spell more bad news for homeowners who are nearing the end of their fixed term and for potential homeowners?