Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are in unprecedented times. We have gone from a Covid crisis into a Ukrainian crisis. Clearly, we have to support the people of Ukraine, but there are issues that we must deal with domestically. We learnt a lot from the pandemic. The measures we bring in must be quick, decisive and very much sectorally-based, and they must take away uncertainty. What we are facing at the moment is coming at an enormous speed, virtually overnight. We are facing an increase in food and energy costs. Across society, sectors are being severely impacted. Everybody uses petrol, diesel and heating oil. Everyone has to eat. It affects all sections of society, some more severely than others. Certainly, the haulage sector is under severe pressure. Lower-income households are also under severe pressure. We are now moving into a second unprecedented event with the Ukrainian crisis, after just coming out of the Covid pandemic.

We can learn from Covid. Many of the measures that we brought in have been road-tested and they have worked. The EWSS and PUP scheme have worked. The various supports for different sectors have worked. We came through. People in various sectors were impacted severely and many of them are still suffering. Many in the hospitality sector are still being affected by the pandemic. Generally, as a country, our revenues held up. Coming into this, the economy generally, and the State's finances in particular, are in a reasonably good position. Our borrowings are high, but we are in a reasonably good position to deal with this particular crisis. What was announced today with the cut in excise duty is just the start. We have to keep it under review. Obviously, there are constraints in what we can do in terms of Europe, but it is something that we must be conscious of. The difference this time is that major inflationary measures are coming. There are external reasons the price of energy is going up and the price of food will go up. We need security of supply. The Government came through the pandemic crisis. We did not get everything right, but certainly, in the main, we got a lot of things right. Many businesses came through. Now, we are presented with different challenges, but the blueprint is there. The difference between Covid and now is that when Covid happened, it was a blank page. Now, it is happening and we know which measures worked and which did not. The difference here is that we will have to ensure that we find ways to guarantee that people can afford to live. That is the biggest difference now, particularly around energy and food. This will have to be reviewed on a continual basis. The factors are changing very much outside our own control. The one thing that we learned from Covid is that we must move decisively and with speed. That is what takes away the degree of uncertainty. It is something that I would like to see happening and I have no doubt that it will.

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