Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I appreciate that. My final question relates to the economy as a whole. Inflation radically affects families across the country. Electric Ireland increased the price of electricity by 25% today, which is an incredible increase. This will cause pressure to provide wage increases. The Government warned that salary increases could have a spiralling effect on inflation.

This committee often talks about wage increases for people who are very wealthy and there does not seem to be a problem about it at all. When it comes to wage increases for people on low and middle incomes there is a warning given that it could lead to spiralling prices in the future. There are highly profitable businesses, and I am thinking of the ESB itself which made a profit of €650 million this year. It is incredible that one of its arms is increasing the cost of electricity at the same time. There are many businesses in this country that are extremely profitable and it would be possible for them to offer pay rises to workers and still not put an upward spiralling pressure on wage inflation if that were the case. Is that not right?