Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely correct in his initial remarks. The cost of living is rising and everyone can see that. We see it in the forecourts, the supermarkets and when people fill their oil tank for the winter. The cost of 1,000 l of home heating oil was €450 this time last year. It is €750 now; up to the level it was in 2019. We are seeing a return to inflation, a matter I spoke about months ago and which people were dismissive of at the time. It is now very much a reality. It is hurting families, consumers and businesses. It is a feature of two major international factors. Nobody in this House, this Government or this country controls the price of oil or gas. It is rising due to international reasons as demand outstrips supply. It is also down to the policies of central banks lending money at 0%. Quantitative easing is something which some people in this House believe should continue forever. Of course, when central banks print €9 billion or $9 billion, items that cannot be printed go up in price and that includes property and commodities. Part of the reason for this is due to the policy of central banks printing money and lending money at 0%. It was the right thing to do during the pandemic crisis but it will need to be reined in. Otherwise we will continue to see inflation rise unless there is a change in that regard. We will see central banks tightening monetary policy next year precisely because we need to restore price stability and for no other reason.

In terms of what the Government can do, there will need to be a welfare package in the next budget. There is broad agreement on that but not on its composition as of yet. That still needs to be worked out. There will need to be a welfare package in the budget because people on pensions and on social welfare will end up worse off unless there is an increase this year. That will need to be done. We will need to do something about the fuel allowance. We have committed to ring-fencing some proceeds from the carbon tax in order to increase the fuel allowance, which we will do. The fuel allowance kicks in from next week. We will give consideration to amending the means test. However, all these things come at a cost and we will have to get that right. We will need pay increases. Pay increases are happening across the economy and they are necessary. We will also need a tax package to make sure that those who get a pay increase do not lose most of it in income tax, universal social charge and PRSI. That is why we have committed to the indexation of tax credits and tax bands. I hope the parties opposite will support that.

On electricity supply, we have had a number of briefings, meetings and consultations about this. There is a concern about supply being tight this winter and even more so next winter but contingency plans are being put in place to avoid that.

We are confident that even in a very cold winter, when it is calm and the wind is not blowing and we have to produce our electricity from oil, gas and coal or import it from elsewhere, we will not see brownouts or blackouts. We are doing everything to ensure that does not arise.

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