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

When the Deputy misquotes and misrepresents somebody and puts words into their mouth, it just demonstrates the weakness of his argument. That is all it does. I will come back to that in a moment.

Everyone accepts that inflation is a reality and that many people and families are struggling to make ends meet as a result of it. There are many factors behind the international inflation and cost-of-living crisis. There is the war in Europe. Of course that has been part of the cause of this. The increase in interest rates is another factor. There has been a snap-back in demand post pandemic. Yes, there is profiteering by some companies and that is part of this. Bodies like the ECB have pointed to this but it is only one factor, not the sole factor. In fairness to the Deputy, in his contribution, he acknowledged that it was a factor and not the sole factor.

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