Brian Keegan: VAT relief the way to best tackle inflation

It is looking increasingly likely that the price for a rapid recovery from the pandemic isa significant rise in inflation.

The economic bounce back from the pandemic restrictions, as underlined by the positive exchequer figures last week, is quite remarkable.

It is almost as if the Irish economy had been designed to withstand pandemic lockdown, with an emphasis on fostering industry that produces highly-in-demand information and communications technology products and pharmaceuticals, along with a tax base that collects the most income tax from those best able to work from home, and a high rate of value-added tax to catch bumper receipts as the brakes on consumer spending end.