The Government has been urged to take more targeted action to address the impact of rising inflation on workers, the unemployed and more marginalised members of society.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) general secretary Owen Reidy said it was “tragic” that a “crazy military escapade” could potentially cause another cost-of-living crisis.

However, he said that if heightened inflation persisted then it would inevitably lead to increased pay claims from workers across the economy.

The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), published on Monday, indicated that prices increased at an annualised rate of 3.6 per cent in March, up from 2.5 per cent the month before.

Fuel, the price of which has increased sharply since the start of the US and Israeli war on Iran, was the driving force behind the rise, with the price of food falling fractionally last month after sustained increases.

“Hopefully this will only be a spike and in time we’ll see it kind of flatten and come down, but it will feed into pay,” Reidy said.

Ictu’s advice to private-sector unions, he said, had been to seek pay rises of up to 6 per cent based on factors including inflation of about 2.5 per cent.

This advice could be revised upwards in light of events in the Gulf and Middle East, Reidy said, with Ictu planning to monitor the situation over the coming months.

The position of unions going into talks in the coming months on the possibility of a new public-sector pay deal, which would affect more than 400,000 workers, would be influenced by what happened with inflation.

Donal Swan, senior policy coordinator at the National Women’s Council, was also frustrated about the cause of the present round of price increases, saying many people were still struggling with aspects of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

“These crises … don’t really affect everyone equally. They tend to exacerbate existing inequalities,” he said.

“Women are particularly affected at a broad level because of their lower incomes, wealth, access to services. And marginalised women like lone parents, disabled women, Traveller women or migrant women are particularly impacted. There is this feeling for them, I think, that it’s all happening again.”

Structural reforms that might provide some buffers against the impact of future shocks to the economy were required, he said, but more immediately “what we’ve consistently said is that targeting is really important … targeting the vulnerable and marginalised communities has to be the approach taken”.

Swan said the extension by four weeks of fuel allowance payments to 470,000 households was welcome, but “the Government should go further”.

“All any organisation is hearing right now is how much people are struggling and while there have been calls for tax cuts they have a tendency to help the better off,” he said.

“We’d like to see things like the cost of disability payment brought in as that would provide help to people who very much need it.”

Older people’s groups said many of those they advocated for had been badly affected by rising prices. They called for extra support, such as additional housing supports and changes to the eligibility criteria for the fuel allowance, for those finding it harder to make ends meet.

Age Action said fewer than a third of State pension recipients qualified for the allowance and the payment ought to be made more accessible.

Rebecca Gorman, of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, said the reductions announced last week to fuel excise had been “great news for some people”, particularly those in rural settings at risk of becoming isolated because they could not afford to travel.

However, she believed the measures announced “so far have left a lot of people behind”.

“Almost 30 per cent of people in unemployment are at risk of poverty and this goes to more than 40 per cent when people are paying rent or a mortgage,” Gorman said.

“The increases to social protection payments in the last budget were very welcome, but the Government has a tendency to give with one hand and take away with the other.

“The loss of the energy credits has been a big blow for many people while others are finding that the rent for their social housing is being increased. We need a more co-ordinated programme of supports.”