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

People Before Profit is asking the Government to declare an emergency in the cost of living. The Government declared an emergency in relation to Covid-19 and brought in emergency measures. It has effectively declared an emergency in relation to Ukraine and brought in emergency measures. It is long past time that it accepts there is an emergency in the cost of living and introduces immediately - not in October - a package of measures to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis that will potentially drive tens of thousands of people in this country into poverty.

There are so many aspects to the cost-of-living crisis that I do not have time to go through them all, but let us look at two that are most basic. To live, people need to be able to heat their homes and they need to be able to afford a roof over their heads. On the first count, yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people were dealt yet another hammer blow with the decision of the ESB, a State-owned company, to increase electricity and gas prices by 24% and 25%, respectively. This is a huge increase, averaging an additional €400 to €500 for its customers over the next year. This follows fast on the heels of Bord Gáis price increases of approximately €690 to €700 per year, just this year. Prior to that, Energia announced a €426 increase this year, on top of average increases in energy costs last year of 27%.

We must remember these increases have not hit yet. People are already reeling from the increases last year but these additional increases have yet to hit. They are going to hit in April and May. How the hell are 470,000 people who are in danger of energy poverty, according to official Government figures, going to cope? The answer is they simply cannot. These increases are by energy companies who have all seen record increases in their profits. In the case of the ESB, profits were up to €679 million and this is the third year they have increased.

Let us look at the housing crisis, the other basic one. We are now back up to almost 10,000 families in homeless accommodation, including more than 2,000 children, because rents have gone through the roof. The Government refuses to control rents, so while the real estate investment trusts, REITs, vulture funds and landlords are seeing record increases in profits, thousands of people are being forced into homeless accommodation. The latest Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO, figures indicate that 138,000 people are in social housing need and it is getting worse.

Will the Government declare an emergency in the cost of living and introduce an emergency package of measures to deal with the cost of living? Crucially, will the Government finally use powers to control the cost of energy and bring in rent controls to make rents affordable?

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