Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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That is exactly my point. We have the potential to be self-sufficient and an international net supplier. We have the potential on the west coast of Ireland, but we are only now developing our national maritime planning legislation to work out a system by which we do it, which seems should have been done 20 years ago. We did not do it and all of sudden, in a rush of blood to the head to get rid of stuff, two power stations have been closed down and probably rightly so. However, our current shortage of energy does not give us the impetus to do something about it because we are punishing the people as we do that and turning them against the idea of climate action by penalising them. I am not talking about carbon tax, but increasing costs.

The other area I have concern about with inflation is farming. The cost of farmers' inputs is rising. Fertiliser has gone up from €425 per tonne, to more than €800 per tonne. The farming community is not a price giver. It has to take whatever price is there and, therefore, it cannot add the price of fertiliser to the price of the bullock, sheep or pig going to the market. It has to take whatever price the market will give it on the day. That is a significant problem. We will have a reduction in output because people will not buy as much fertiliser as they will not be able to afford it. Consequently, there will be a reduction in food supply and more inflation when the consumer wants to buy over the counter. The farmer will not be dictating the price. It will be dictated in other areas. I have an issue with that.

We have the cost of construction materials and labour, which is going up, but also the cost of our regulation in terms of the way we want our houses built now. The cost of building passive homes, planning permission and connecting to utilities is driving up the costs further and further. Regardless of what we do, people cannot afford a mortgage because of the rules on the mortgage one can have, affordability and one's ability to pay back. We are creating a perfect storm in the construction industry. With construction inflation, public works contracts have been signed as fixed-price contracts for the next three years, which will drive people out of business and drive good people to the UK to seek business, rather than try to do business here, where we have such a system at play.

When one increases wages in line with inflation, everything goes up in price, but so does Government tax take. It comes back to the Government through VAT, PAYE, PRSI and USC. We should not worry too much about inflation, except when it goes at a pace faster than which we can keep pace and we are running to stand still or end up further back in the chain a year later. The idea of increasing interest rates is fine, but people who have mortgages and are meeting them fairly well will find themselves under pressure. There is a positivity. Businesses do not have the same debt levels as they did during the bust of 2007 to 2008. Companies are stronger, but there are many unknowns. Is there a silver bullet the witnesses would throw to the Minister of Finance, Deputy Donohoe, to steady the ship from our perspective and that of the nation?