The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that higher mortgage interest repayments as well as more expensive electricity and bin charges led to a rise in inflation in January.
The CSO says that the annual rate of inflation rose to 3% last month from 2.5% in December. This is the highest rate since last October.
As with previous figures, it is clear that while goods prices are falling, the price of services continues to increase - education costs grew by almost 5%, health costs are up by 4.2% and transport added 5.1% in the period.
Meanwhile, gas and other fuels rose by just over 12%.
Goods such as clothes and shoes fell by 1.6% over the year to January 2005, and the prices of furniture and other household goods fell by 1.4%.
Despite the rise to 3% in yearly inflation, inflation figures for last month actually fell by 0.3% because of the January sales.
The current rate of inflation is a little higher than economists had forecast.
