Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This morning, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, indicated that inflation may cap out at 6%. That is an alarming and stark figure, because while many of us can stand up in here and talk about any manner of public policy, inflation will impact on our competitiveness, public pay policy, the pay policy of private companies and our ability to spend the significant amounts that many of the Ministers sitting behind the Tánaiste have allocated. Will the Tánaiste outline how the Government intends to identify the underlying causes of the inflation? I welcome the announcement of the €100 grant as a token towards addressing fuel costs. I also ask the Tánaiste to take into account those people who use prepay cards in their consumption of electricity.

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