Inflation could rise even higher than it is at present before it starts a downward turn, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, warned yesterday.
The Taoiseach was speaking before his departure to the European Summit in Portugal. "Inflation could be even higher than its present rate before it starts the downward turn. Inflation is now at the high level it is for a number of reasons. One is the weakness of the euro," claimed Mr Ahern.
"As the euro appreciates against the dollar, that will certainly help inflation and will certainly help us because we export more outside the euro eleven than most other countries," he said.
There were also a number of companies in the private sector which were using the economy growth and wrongly increasing prices.
Referring to the licensing trade, Mr Ahern said the legislative changes in the present Bill would mean that more licences would come into the Dublin market in particular.
"There have been very substantive and unwarranted increases by publicans over the last period of time and we're going to have to see what we can do to curb that," he said.
Asked about the nomination of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty as vice-president of the European Investment Bank in light of the Taoiseach's meetings with his European counterparts over the next few days, Mr Ahern replied: "That decision is made and I have explained the position many times and I'm not going to do it every day."