Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

-----but they have yet to fall for residential customers. We are only seeing a windfall tax in the autumn and now there are similar issues with the cost of food. The European Central Bank, ECB, is clear that corporate profits are now the main driver of that inflation and not the other factors. The pain that is being inflicted by the ECB to control inflation interest rate hikes is not being felt by corporations, it is being felt by ordinary workers and families whose mortgages are going up.

We are due another interest rate hike today. That will be the seventh interest rate hike in less than a year. All the pain of the crisis is being visited on ordinary workers and families. On one side, supermarkets and energy companies are among those who are price gouging with wild abandon. On the other hand, the ECB is tightening the screw even further with incessant increases in interest rates. None of what the Tánaiste said addresses that. It is just giving out different payments to try to make it less painful for people, but it is not addressing the cause of the problem. The pressure on people is too much to bear. Those payments are not addressing it anymore. A tiny decrease in the price of butter and milk is not the answer to this.

The Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill will be on Report and Final Stages in the Dáil next week and-----

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