War is something that we like to think affects other people in other places. That fiction is getting harder to maintain.

Four weeks ago, home heating oil cost around €500 for a fill. Then it was €700, before climbing to €880. This week, my mother was quoted over €1,000. It is March, and she still needs heating – but to know whether to buy now or wait, she would need to assess the likelihood of a ceasefire in the Middle East, the status of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the trajectory of Brent crude futures. These are not decisions a woman in Ireland should have to make to heat her home; they are decisions that a functioning national strategy should absorb on her behalf.

In four weeks, a war in the Middle East has rewritten the economics of daily life on this island. The Government has responded with a €250 million package – excise cuts, a diesel rebate for hauliers, a four-week extension of the fuel allowance – and these are reasonable measures, as far as they go. But they are entirely reactive, designed to soften the blow of what could be a long-term crisis rather than to manage one.

What Ireland does not yet have is a strategy.

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Other countries do. Victoria, Australia, has made all public transport free for April. South Korea has launched a 12-point conservation campaign including vehicle restrictions, staggered commuting hours and restarting nuclear reactors. Sri Lanka........

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