Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To move on to a couple of real-world impacts, because when we talk about how we generate and make decisions about the distribution of resources, it is about the real-world impact, Professor McMahon said, and has not put a tooth in it, that this is a procyclical budget. I do not mean to put words in his mouth but my interpretation of what he said was this budget could potentially add fuel to the flames of an economy that is at risk of overheating. The real-world impact of many of the untargeted measures, whether they be, in my view, poorly informed decisions to introduce the kind of tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the better off in a very tight labour market, the reintroduction or the reheating of universal supports such as energy credits regardless of what a person's income may be, all of these things will contribute to ensuring inflation remains higher for longer. Will Professor McMahon tell me, in his assessment, what socioeconomic groups will be most adversely affected by that? It is important to remember and it has become lost in the narrative and the interpretation in the media of what Professor McMahon has been saying, such as phrases like "political gimmickry" which capture the public attention, that at the end of the day there are real-world impacts to the decisions that have been taken and there is going to be a price to be paid for that. Therefore, it would be worthwhile for Professor McMahon to state again for the record what IFAC forecasts the level of inflation to be next year as a result of the untargeted measures and related measures in the budget as against what it would be if the budget had been more targeted, and the kinds of socioeconomic groups that are going to be most adversely affected by inflation being higher for longer.