Like many people in Ireland, we’re being squeezed by costs of energy and fuel. The screenshot of our current electricity burn shows some of that happening. It’s not just increase in our electricity usage, our unit costs are increasing as well.
Across Irish media there are calls for income tax cuts to be prioritised in the Irish budget because experts believe fuel prices will remain elevated through this decade. The energy crisis arising from Trump’s war on Iran is worse than the 70s and more damaging than during COVID.
It’s intriguing to hear the shift within the Irish government on the possibility of putting in place a work-from-home mandate. Much depends on the length and severity of the crisis affecting the availability of fuel and other products transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The war started by Trump and Israel has put some of the same fear that was felt during the inflationary times of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine war back into conversations I hear in pubs.
During COVID, when we were building a cabin out back, the price of certain products would increase as much as 20 per cent a month. I had to expect to pay more for bags of cement and for slabs of insulation every time I went to the builder suppliers. Now this same thing is happening to builders who are trying to construct 50,000 homes this year in Ireland.