Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I have a question on inflation and the effect that can have on Government expenditure, especially in the capital area where we have the national development plan and many projects that we are hoping to do over the next ten years. We might not get the same bang for our buck as we did two years ago with the inflation that has happened. In the next two to three years do the witnesses see inflation coming back to a near normal level? Regarding our income tax receipts and the fact that we have a windfall tax at the moment, how do the witnesses gauge whether that is falling off or when will we see that begin to wane so we can prepare for that? Basically, how many good years do we have left in that market? How do we monitor it to see that it is actually going down? What kind of alerts are in place in this situation? This is something we will need to know before we are over the cliff, that we can accommodate what we are trying to do, especially with all the supports we have put in place since Covid. Some of these supports have been temporary but if a child is given a bag of sweets it is very hard to get him or her to give them back. We are going to have problems trying to wean people off some of the supports they have been getting generally and particularly with the cost-of-living crisis. It is a very loaded question but I would like to get an idea how the witnesses monitor what is happening so that red flags can be raised in advance of something going completely wrong.