Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister identified inflation as a particular problem in the budget when he introduced tax reductions, social benefit changes and subsidies to try to address energy prices. It is a huge pressure. What we do not hear acknowledged in the House is the external reality about energy prices generally. I recall a Department of Finance paper from December 2021 about global demand and prices. Events have moved on so much since then. The paper stated wholesale natural gas prices had increased seventeenfold since June 2020 while oil prices more than doubled over the same period. It also stated that at the same time a lower than expected gas supply from Russia, low gas reserves due to the longer winter last year, weather-related disruptions to renewable energy production and an increase in carbon prices put further upward pressure on electricity prices and fuel prices. It stated that governments in many countries, including Ireland, have taken action through a mixture of tax cuts, social benefits and subsidies. The trouble is the tax cuts, the tax changes and widening the bands, which reduced tax for many people in the country, were opposed by Deputies now raising the carbon tax.

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