Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is the way it should be. We need to get inflation down. Ireland has an unemployment rate of less than 4%. We have the lowest youth unemployment in Europe. We have dramatically increased employment in the past three years. There must be a balanced, measured and stable approach to managing the economy. Some countries outside the EU have inflation rates of up to 50% or 60%. When a country reaches that disastrous level, it is in real trouble. Getting inflation down matters and it matters to citizens. A balance must be struck in measures to curb inflation. It is working, albeit more slowly than anticipated due to the war in Ukraine, which has caused huge problems with inflation, as has the response to Covid-19 and to coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have to get inflation down because it will kill the citizen more than anything else, metaphorically speaking.

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