Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It would be no harm for the committee to communicate that to the Department. It is very important. This is the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, after all. We have spoken about fuel costs previously but to hear Mr. Parlon quantify it at up to 10% in the context of projects costing tens of millions of euro is extremely worrying.

A few weeks ago, during questions on promised legislation in the Chamber, I said to the Taoiseach that inflation is a Europe-wide problem, particularly as it relates to building costs. All of the figures the CIF has produced today on fluctuating prices in steel and aggregates and so on, are similar to those in the UK, France, Spain and across Europe as a whole. It is not until one gets to Asia that one sees some degree of price stability because the supply chain of materials largely begins over there. I put it to the Taoiseach that the European bloc of nations was able to sort out the supply chains for vaccines and PPE very successfully. Does the CIF believe that supply chains could be improved if there was the wherewithal within states, and with multiple states, to get these materials back into the west of Europe and back over to Ireland? Should there be state interventions?