![\"T\u00e1naiste](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00240802-614.jpg\"\/)
\nSimon Harris said the focus is on the de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East<\/p>\n
There are no plans to introduce Covid-like restrictions to deal with the energy crisis unfolding due to the US war in Iran, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has said.<\/p>\n
His comments come as annual consumer price inflation is estimated to have risen to 3.6% in the 12 months to March, the latest flash estimate of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices from the Central Statistics Office shows.<\/p>\n
Prices rose by 1.8% since last month, the CSO added.<\/p>\n
This compares with HICP inflation of 2.5% in Ireland in the 12 months to February 2026 and an annual increase of 1.9% in the HICP for the Eurozone in the same period.<\/p>\n
It said energy prices are estimated to have climbed by 11.1% in the month and were up by 12.3% over the 12 months to March 2026.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said the scale of the energy crisis is greater than the world has ever seen, but he said there are no supply concerns in Ireland or Europe today.<\/p>\n
\nSimon Harris said the focus is on the de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East<\/p>\n
He said this current crisis is very different to the pandemic and there are no plans to adapt people’s travel schedules.<\/p>\n
“We are keeping all measures under review,” he added.<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said if the war ended today, it would take a year to fix the damage done to infrastructure according to the best estimates made available by the IEA.<\/p>\n
He said the Government did give advice to people about the conservation of energy during the conflict in Ukraine and that may be necessary again.<\/p>\n
However, the T\u00e1naiste said the focus is on the de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
He said the Government still expects the economy will grow this year and incomes to rise, putting the country in a strong position to respond to the crisis.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in Spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty urged the Government to quickly introduce further cuts to diesel, petrol and home heating oil, in light of the latest inflation figures.<\/p>\n
He warned that if fuel and energy prices are not brought under control quickly, it will have a major impact on food prices and other sectors of the economy, affecting workers and families at a time when they can least afford it.<\/p>\n
He said too that farmers and fishermen are fuming at the “measly” reduction on green diesel excise duty announced by Government last week and called for further cuts.<\/p>\n
Increase ‘may have been influenced’ by Middle East<\/p>\n
According to the CSO, food prices are estimated to have decreased by 0.3% in the last month and gone up by 2.3% in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
The corresponding rate for the euro zone will be published tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Statistician in the CSO Prices Division Anthony Dawson said the increases in energy prices “may have been influenced by recent events in the Middle East”.<\/p>\n
He said the prices were collected in mid-March and before the Government measures on energy costs were introduced.<\/p>\n
The figures are a flash estimate for the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).<\/p>\n
The HICP is an index of consumer prices that has been harmonised to allow comparisons across Eurozone countries.<\/p>\n
The March Consumer Price Index, which is the official measure of inflation for Ireland, will be published by the CSO on 9 April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are no plans to introduce Covid-like restrictions to deal with the energy crisis unfolding due to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-503471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}