Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I think the problem is the Tánaiste does not really seem to understand that the cost of living crisis that we are facing is, in fact, an emergency. Just like we had a housing emergency, which he finally and reluctantly had to accept existed, he needs to accept this is an emergency. Working people, pensioners and the least well-off are being absolutely crucified by the stratospheric increase in the cost of accommodation, rents, energy prices and now all sorts of other rising costs of living. What absolutely infuriates me is that the Government pretends as if this is like the weather, that it is not really to do with it, that it has something to do with international pressures, that it is not the Government's responsibility, and there is nothing it can really do about it.

I want to inject something that has not been said in this debate, namely, that there are winners in all of this, and that is what needs to be addressed. Inflation should actually be renamed price gouging and profiteering. The reason rents go up is because landlords increase rents to unaffordable levels. The reason energy prices go up is because energy supply companies increase the cost of that energy and they are making a lot of money out of it. The heating misery and the housing misery that ordinary people are suffering is benefiting certain groups of people, particularly corporate interests. Globally, BP and Shell have seen their profits jump to €40 billion last year. Shell's profits have quadrupled in one year. In one year they have gone up by 400%. But that is not just an international phenomenon; it is happening here. The ESB has seen its profits jump. In 2020, it made €616 million profit, and for just one half of the year last year, it made €356 million, so it is set to exceed €700 million. Energia has seen its profits jump by 46% last year, 45% the year before and it is paying dividends to its shareholders of €30 million. There are winners and there are losers.

The same happens with rents. Rents in this country have gone up by 61% in the last decade. Rents in the rest of Europe have gone up too, but only by 14%. The Government is allowing the landlords to cream it on the back of the housing misery of ordinary working people. That is the reality, and that is never spoken about. The rental income of IRES REIT, the biggest landlord in this country, increased to €24.7 million last year. It increased by 6% up to €30 million. While rents are stratospheric and are completely unaffordable for working people - €2,000 on average in Dublin; €1,500 on average for a one-bedroom apartment; €2,200 for a two-bedroom apartment in my area - these people are creaming it, and the Government allows it to happen.

The Government has no problem with their profits going through the roof, but when workers say they would like their minimum wage increased, the Government has a big problem with that. It argues it cannot put it to €12.90 or €15, as we proposed in the Dáil this week. It cannot do that but it has no problem with the REIT's profits going through the roof.

Why does the Government not change its priorities away from protecting the profiteering of energy companies and landlords to supporting an increase in the minimum wage to a living wage-----

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