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

I thank the Minister for coming before the committee. As the Chairman outlined, the committee has been considering this issue. The Parliamentary Budget Office delivered an excellent and interesting briefing. As the Minister outlined, we are and have been living in extraordinary times, with Covid and now the invasion of Ukraine. Of course, that means it can be difficult to predict what may be coming down the tracks. My questions largely relate to the view of the Minister in respect of some of those issues. Obviously, some of it is difficult to predict but I am interested to tease it out and hear his views.

The forecast in the stability programme update assumes that sanctions will remain as they were at the time of publication. Obviously, those sanctions do not include energy products. There is a scenario analysis, but it does not include fiscal-side analysis. I understand that things are constantly changing. It can be very difficult to analyse what might happen as a result. Of course, all present are aware of the recent remarks of Ursula von der Leyen in the context of oil and sanctions. There has been much discussion regarding sanctions. What impact could that have? Is it the intention of the Minister to conduct that kind of analysis now that we are seeing this most recent development?