Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Does the Minister appreciate the plight of the ordinary family who must do a week's shopping? The report of the Central Bank shows that Ireland is now the country with the highest level of prices in Europe and in the eurozone. Our price levels are 19.5% higher than the eurozone average. Ireland is significantly more expensive than either the UK or Germany. The Government is the primary party responsible for a great amount of price increases which the people must face. The Euro barometer in which the Minister placed so much faith during his answer showed that the Irish figure is 3% for December. The only country that is higher than Ireland is Greece, which is at 3.2%. We are joint second for the highest price levels with Slovenia, which only recently joined the eurozone.

The family that must do a week's shopping is living in the country with the highest price levels and we are drifting to the top of the inflation league. We are also at the bottom of the competitiveness league in areas like broadband penetration. Does the Minister have any kind of response to the impact of this on families and on the many workers who are getting redundancy notices? Even workers in high-tech jobs at Motorola are losing their jobs. Our competitiveness is simply not keeping pace with that of our competitors. What does the Minister say to that after ten years in Government?

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