Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is 2.1%. The regulator has decided to do the same as the airlines and other groups have done. I am not sure if the Labour Party supplies Deputy Rabbitte's car but the Government supplies mine. When I was on holidays last August the price of petrol was €1.25 per litre whereas it is now 99c in competitive garages. That is a big decrease. The regulator has taken that into account as well. Yes, the barrel of oil has doubled in price but I hope the Deputy is not asking me to control the price of the barrel of oil on the international markets. The CIE group asked for a 10% increase but was given a 2.75% increase which is below the rate of inflation. There are difficulties in some areas. In the three items highlighted in the figures, wheat items, fruit and fish, there have been huge increases. I am not denying that. The overall price has been relatively low. I would not in any way denigrate the actions and the efforts made by the social partnership group who, three years ago, did a good job, with the backing of a campaign funded by the Government, and put pressure on the various interests to keep prices down. As I said yesterday, for IBEC and others there are areas where there is a lack of competition and with the assistance of competition in those areas we could get further increases. The end point is that inflation, excluding energy and interest rates on all of the food items which represents everything else is at 2.1% which is very favourable in international trends.

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