Taoiseach Micheál Martin warns energy, fuel prices could rise even higher

Micheál Martin repeated earlier expressed fears that the war in Ukraine would cause the energy crisis to worsen.

He said certain people’s eyebrows shot up whenever he mentioned the Ukraine war, but its capacity to wreak further economic damage remained.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had stopped the supply of gas to Germany and other major customers, “and that will have an impact”, said Mr Martin.

“Thankfully, we're not as dependent on Russian gas and oil as other countries.

“But generally, if the contraction is going more global, then that will affect everybody in terms of pricing, and so on,” he said.

Mr Martin said earlier: “I think there is no question that the war in Ukraine has exacerbated very significantly what was an emerging inflationary cycle coming from the pandemic.

“I am worried about the winter period. Because we've seen what Putin has done already this week in reducing gas supplies to Germany and to other European customers.

“That's going to have an impact on our energy situation. And he's leveraging to create the maximum pressure he can for the winter period.

“So we do have to allocate our resources in the optimal way, which in my view is to protect people right throughout the winter period, and beyond the winter.

“That's the big objective, really, to get people through what will be a difficult winter period across the board.”