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

I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this issue. We all appreciate the extent to which prices are rising and the cost of living is going up. We see it at the pumps. We see it in our electricity bills and gas bills. We see it in the cost of buying groceries, and of course we see it in the correspondence we all receive from constituents. There are essentially two ways to deal with inflation. We can try to chase it by increasing everything, that is, pay, welfare and pensions. That needs to be done but it only drives inflation. It needs to be done because the symptoms of the problem must be treated, but it does not solve it. What is needed underpinning that is an anti-inflation strategy that brings down the cost of things. That includes the competition legislation I am putting through the Dáil at the moment. It includes consumer protections. I will be publishing new legislation on that very shortly. It also includes bringing down the cost of things the Government has some control over, such as the cost of childcare. We are also working on bringing down insurance costs. While we might not be able to control the cost of oil, gas or energy, there are costs that are partially under the Government's control and we need to bring them down.

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