Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Given the Minister of State's admission and the information he provided indicating that the proportion of expenditure on tobacco is declining, what would be the effect of removing tobacco from the CPI calculation? He referred to the approach taken in Belgium and France of producing a sub-index of their consumer price indices. Is it not the case that the state is the retailer of tobacco products in both these countries? Perhaps this is the reason for using a sub-index.

On the general issue of the consumer price index, does the Minister of State accept that the amount spent on the cost of housing, both in mortgage and rent payments, accounts for the largest variation between Irish inflation and average European inflation? Is this not the principal reason for the discrepancy between CPI figures here and those of other countries? Does the Minister of State have plans to remove housing costs from the consumer price index?

The CPI is used as a formula for calculating a number of thresholds for taxation purposes, for example, inheritance tax, for which the value of a property is increased every year in line with CPI, even though house price inflation is significantly higher than the consumer price index. Will a specific indicator for these thresholds be introduced to measure inflation in terms of particular sectors of the economy, including housing?

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