Price of day-to-day items to soar and food shortages possible in 'war economy', warns Taoiseach

Road hauliers warn the price of fuel could top €3 a litre
Price of day-to-day items to soar and food shortages possible in 'war economy', warns Taoiseach

Ireland is heading towards becoming a "war economy" whereby the price of many day-to-day items will soar, Taoiseach Micheàl Martin has warned.

Ireland is heading towards becoming a "war economy" whereby the price of many day-to-day items will soar, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has warned.

Speaking in London, as road hauliers warn the price of fuel could top €3 a litre, Mr Martin admitted the war in Ukraine will have a severe impact on Ireland "in terms of the price of many products”.

While he said it is not likely, he could not rule out the possibility of food shortages.

Mr Martin said Europe is capable of feeding itself but there will be a very significant issue around grain.

Ireland is heavily reliant on imported grain, with around 60% of the 5.5 million tonnes used in the country every year sourced from overseas.

It is used both in products for human consumption and for animal feed.

Ukraine and Russia are both key international exporters of grain.

Russia also supplies more than 20% of fertiliser used in Ireland.

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"It looks very likely Ukraine will not be planting this season. That has very serious repercussions across the continent, which will impact Ireland. That’s why there have been discussions with Irish farming organisations," Mr Martin said.

The Taoiseach said he didn't want to worry people but he has to be honest.

Micheál Martin arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London. Picture: James Manning/PA 
Micheál Martin arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London. Picture: James Manning/PA 

"The precise nature of that impact is yet to be determined, but commodity prices are going through the roof, basically, that will feed into our economy and the big three areas at the moment are the fuel prices, food and general commodities around metals and so on.” 

“There will be an impact on food. I am not clear yet on specific areas of shortages and so on. 

I don’t want to scaremonger at this stage, I am just not in a position to predict this. 

"But I want to say to people that the war will impact on us, particularly in terms of prices of many products, and that’s probably the earliest manifestation of the war through food and everything else.” 

Asked specifically if Ireland was now in a “war economy”, where resources run scarce, Mr Martin said: “Not quite yet, but we are heading in that direction.” 

The Taoiseach also hit out at Sinn Féin for being soft of Russia, while hitting out at the West for being aggressors.

"There has been a tendency of both Sinn Fein and the hard left to blame Nato all of the time and to blame the West as being responsible for Russian aggression.

"Morally it just doesn't stack up this equivalence between the US and Russia. It just doesn't stack up."

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