The rise in food ingredient costs can be attributed to multiple factors: environmental monitoring pressures in the agricultural sector have led to increased agricultural costs, and the Irish Food Board predicts that the number of cattle will decrease by 87,000 this year, which limits farmers' operational benefits and forces production costs to rise to maintain financial stability. In addition to supply chain issues, the government also plays a role in inflation. The Irish government has consistently overspent in recent budgets, repeatedly violating the recommendation of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFCA) that the net increase in spending should not exceed 5%. The IFCA noted that the scale of spending in this year's budget could be more than double the amount of last year's budget. The trade-off the government must face is that continued overspending will inevitably lead to inflation.