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

The Taoiseach is just repeating the same tired mantra and it is starting really to lack credibility. We know general inflation does not explain the obscene price increases we are seeing across the economy. The ECB has said that. It is greed that is driving inflation now. We know certain companies are milking it and that the Government seems unwilling or unable to do anything about that. It has been politely asking energy companies to reduce their prices for months and they are just ignoring it. The Government cannot even convince a State-owned company to bring its prices down. Now we are told the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, is going to wag his finger at supermarket groups and tell them to bring their prices down. He assured me yesterday that he will ask for transparency around their profit margins in Ireland versus those in other countries but it is not clear if there will be any repercussions if they do not do so or do not reduce their prices. It seems, therefore, that the Government cannot do anything about these extortionate prices or there is no plan in place.

The next issue is how the Government ensures low- and middle-income earners do not pay the price of that failure. They have suffered enough through two years of spiralling prices and they cannot take any more. For everyone's sake, please stop listing off the one-off measures the Government introduced because we all know they are not a sustainable response to a continuous crisis. What will the Government do to help people weather this storm because tax breaks are the only other thing the Taoiseach mentioned? A tax break is not a break if it erodes the basic services that underpin the cost of living and quality of life.

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