Mr. Niall Conroy:

We used real hourly wages and competition of employees and compared these with inflation. We saw strong growth in this from 2014 to 2021. Then there was large inflation in 2022 that has been eroding the purchasing power of the wages that people receive. It is forecast in the stability programme update that there will be fairly strong real growth in hourly wages this year, of approximately 3%. This would still leave people just below the level they had in 2021. It emphasises how costly high inflation can be to many people in society. Professor McMahon has outlined how the Central Bank has estimated that a large budgetary package has added to inflation. This has eroded the purchasing power of all citizens.