Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

The inflationary areas that we talked about include energy, supply chain issues, base effects and housing. On the housing side, there is always pressure in terms of dealing with the issues there. To go back to the point I made in response to an earlier question, the only thing the Government can do that will have a sustainable and long-lasting impact in that area is to try to achieve as great an increase in supply as possible. That is the ultimate solution to the housing difficulties, particularly in the provision of cheaper social and affordable housing. That is the key policy conclusion in that area. Those are the kinds of changes that can help to reduce housing costs in the economy which are long-term costs. A lot of the increasing costs we are talking about at present are relatively short term and are related to the pandemic. The real long-term high costs in the Irish economy when we benchmark ourselves against other countries are in housing. House prices and rents are very high compared to other countries. This has been identified by the National Competitiveness Council and international agencies as something that we really need to tackle.