Tony Foley: We can't all be insulated from higher energy bills

The Government can decide how to apportion the impact of the energy prices between different groups in society but it cannot eliminate the direct and indirect pain for everyone

If the Government was to fully insulate every household and business from higher energy bills, it would still have to seek increased taxes and/or higher levels of borrowing, or displace other expenditure. 

These are extraordinary inflationary times by modern standards but not compared to the early 1980s. 

Consumer price inflation raced to 6.7 % in March and even higher under the EU-wide harmonised index. Moreover, inflation is heading higher again before it will decline later in the year.