Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday, the Taoiseach asked us all to get back to what we are good at and what we should be doing. What the Minister of State should be doing now is dealing with this issue because it is going to be the biggest issue by far facing the country. We accept a percentage of the colossal level of inflation is due to international factors, but when we break it down to the level of ordinary people's lives, between the rates of increase in diesel and petrol, home heating oil, the basic staple diet of bread, butter and milk, and electricity, families are facing an increase of €3,000 to €4,000. They cannot take it. The sum of €113.50 is laughable.

The Taoiseach put himself in a bind yesterday when he spoke about workers and the fact he does not believe they should be looking for what are pretty modest wage increases, while the Tánaiste was saying the complete opposite and agreed with what I said in the House. I will say it straight out. We are the Labour Party. We work with trade unions all the time. They are going to make wage demands and we are going to bloody well support them. The Minister of State is not doing his job. Real politics is back. He will have to deal with this. It will not wash at all to offer €113.50 to somebody who is facing increases of €4,000.

We asked some families to give us their experience. One elderly lady said:

My only income is the State pension. It is impossible to keep going with the increases that I am now facing. This Government do not understand it up there.

Another woman told us the real impact it is having on her family:

The cost of my grocery shop has slowly increased by at least €50 per week. That is a basic enough shop of staple food, no drink, just veg, meat, fruit, etc. Since October I have put €1,140 into my oil tank. My car diesel did cost €70, it now costs €107. [These people are budgeting, and they are going to fall over.] I have had to add €100 extra per week to my household budget to buy the same things I did last year.

This is the one that really got me, as you can imagine, "My sister works in a supermarket, and she said people are putting items back at the till when they realise the scale and size of their bill."

There is increasing food poverty due to inflation, higher utility bills and higher fuel bills. Another person who got on to me said that they have to return to the workplace in Dublin. They did commute there two times a week, but now that they have to work full time and pay rent, it basically means they must give up their job because they cannot survive.

With all of these inflationary measures, this is not just affecting one size of family or a certain dynamic of family. It is affecting those who are poor, who are on the poverty line, and it is affecting single people who are having to move because other changes in how we live our lives change how they do things. It is affecting working families. It is affecting those who have to pay mortgages. It is affecting everyone at a certain level. There is a huge amount of worry and fear out there that the Government does not get. I told the Taoiseach yesterday that the Government is not living in the real world. The Minister of State should please bear this in mind; there is a very short window to deal with this. My colleague, Deputy Nash, has put forward proposals to facilitate and help the Government. It is simply untrue to say those tools are not available.

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