Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy said today there was "some evidence" that inflationary pressures in Ireland were receding.
"There is some evidence that pressures are easing off and we would hope that over the course of the year the trend is going to be downwards," he told the Reutersnews agency.
Official figures last week showed inflation rose to 5.1 per cent in the year to February, the highest for more than three years and confirming Ireland's position at the top of the eurob zone inflation league.
Mr McCreevy refuted criticism that rises in indirect taxes in last December's budget were responsible for the latest surge. "If you look at the facts the big drivers of inflation are services inflation," he added.
Budget effects only added around 0.85 percentage points to overall inflation, he said.
"We made a prediction at budget time that the average inflation rate would be in the order of 4.5 per cent by the end of the year.
"That would mean that the figure at the end of the year would be a lot lower than it is now," McCreevy added.
Despite the latest increase in inflation, he said he was hopeful of bringing inflation down to that level.