Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In a report published yesterday, KBC Bank says it expects the average household to be €2,000 worse off this year as result of the cost of living crisis. This will hit lower- and middle-income earners hardest. Yesterday, representatives of the Central Bank told me in a committee meeting that they expect household bills already are €1,300 more than they were this time last year and that there will be an additional cost for food of about €600 for the average household this year.

Workers and families cannot bear these costs without significant financial hardship. We know many families already are facing difficulties. According to the CEO of ALONE, an organisation that advocates for older people, the latter are choosing whether to use their money to keep the heating on or to buy food. That is the situation in which they find themselves. Young people, too, are confronted with similar choices. These are choices nobody should have to make. The war in Ukraine has turbocharged inflation and rising prices but we have been in the grips of high inflation since the second half of last year, with energy prices spiking while households already were facing unaffordable rents and housing costs. In its quarterly bulletin, published yesterday, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, said it expects inflation to average 6.7% this year. The Cental Bank expects it to peak at 9% by the summer.

Rising prices do not affect everybody equally. They hit lower-income households the hardest. Workers and families need support, and they need it now, to weather the cost of living crisis. Without it, they face massive difficulties and many will be forced into poverty. We recognise that households cannot be fully insulated from the full effect of rising prices but the Government can, should and must do more to support them. Last week, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, ruled out any measures to provide additional supports to households until October. That is not credible and it is simply wrong. It is not the step he should be taking as Minister for Finance. These individuals need additional support. The Government and the Minister have a responsibility to act.

As a result of rising prices this year, those in receipt of social welfare payments are now significantly worse off than they were last year. The Minister should not stand over this. It involves some of the most vulnerable in our society seeing the sharpest cuts in their living standards and in their ability to provide basic necessities for themselves and their families. That is the reality they face. For months, we in Sinn Féin have been calling on the Government to respond to this reality and to increase core social welfare rates in response to rising prices. It has ruled out doing so time and again. Just last week, the Minister ruled it out at least until the budget.

We know some households are more at risk of poverty than others. More than a third of households in the State use home heating oil as the primary fuel source to heat their homes. In Border counties such as mine, two thirds of households rely on it. Last week, the cost of filling a tank reached more than €1,600. Many households simply cannot afford this increase without cutting back on other essentials. That is what is happening in the real world. We in Sinn Féin have called on the Government to remove excise duty on home heating oil, which would take almost €100 off the cost of a tank fill, to ease the burden on those households. The Government has ruled that out and voted against it.

I am asking the Minister for Finance to act to protect those who are most vulnerable. Will he protect workers and families from the sharpest edge of these inflationary increases? I ask him to change his position and to contemplate other supports for the workers and families who are hardest hit. Will he look at a social welfare package to support those who are most vulnerable? Will he remove excise from home heating oil?

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