There are fundamental factors. Inflation has been multifactorial. It is not just greed inflation although there is an element of that, without doubt. That is why we have a windfall tax in respect of energy companies to pull back excessive profits built on the back of the crisis. It has been multifactorial. The initial wave of inflation came with the rebound from Covid, with consequential impacts on supply chains. There were real challenges around supply and demand which increased prices and inflation. Then the energy crisis was real. It was created by Russia which pulled back supply and that led to further inflationary pressures which have fed into costs for food producers and for producers and manufacturing more generally. Then there is retail and there are other sectors. Agencies like the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission are there. The new food ombudsman and regulator is not toothless and will be there to create transparency around the issue of food prices more generally.

The Government has responded to this inflationary cycle with an unprecedented intervention of about €12 billion. Last week alone, as a result of those measures, 1.3 million pensioners - and the Deputy mentioned pensioners – as well as carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and working families received an additional €200 on top of their normal weekly social welfare payments. The reduced VAT rate of 9% on electricity and gas will continue until the end of October. The fourth €200 electricity credit appeared in people’s accounts last month. In education, we are introducing free schoolbooks for every pupil in primary schools and special schools. That will greatly help hard-pressed families. School transport charges for the 2023-24 school year will be reduced to €50 or €75 per student, with a cap per family of €125. There is a waiver for this year's State examination fees for students. The hot school meals programme will be extended to all DEIS primary schools from September. That will benefit 64,000 children. There are very targeted measures to deal with those most in need in respect of food, heating, energy and other supports. We have introduced about eight separate cost-of-living lump-sum payments over the last 12 months. There has been a 25% reduction in childcare, which is significant for families and particularly hard-pressed families. There are additional core payments of €12 a week for pensioners. We need to do more. We have extended the fuel allowance to a further 80,000 elderly people.

I say all that because it gets dismissed in the House. It is mistakenly believed that all of this did not happen or there was no intervention by the Government. There is. The windfall is there. Fundamentally, quite a range of factors are responsible for the inflationary cycle. Food prices went up by approximately 13% in March. We acknowledge that, but-----

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