Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will add a note of caution to the Deputy's accurate comment that the economy is going well. There are real risks and the world is not in a great place, in many respects. We see the geopolitical tensions. We do not know what will happen in Ukraine, how long the conflict will go on, what it could mean for the price of energy, food and so on. There are real risks there. We are all very conscious of the migration crisis and of course the climate crisis, which we are seeing more and more evidence of with each passing day. We have seen the response to inflation from central banks. It is now acting as a real drag on economies, households and businesses. We must also be conscious that as a small, open, trading economy we are so dependent on external forces and the external environment. Many of our main trading partners are growing very sluggishly, if they are growing. That has a real impact and we need to be conscious of that. The economy in Ireland is doing very well and the labour market is very tight and really strong and our public finances are in good shape. That gives us options with respect to the choices we can make about the future, but we should not be blind to the risks, because they are real. In my current role I get a market risk report every day, as the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, did when he was in the role. It looks at all the major metrics one would expect a Minister to be examining when looking at the health of an economy and the risks we are facing. We need to be alive to that because the risks are real and there is much uncertainty about the economic outlook globally. We are very much part of that and dependent on the external environment.