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

The reason so many people have got involved in this new Cost of Living Coalition - pensioners groups, retired workers groups, student unions, single-parent advocacy groups, anti-poverty groups, trade unions and others - is because the measures the Government has been taking are a drop in the ocean; they are making little or no difference to the crucifying increases in the cost of living that people face. The key point is that people are acutely aware that this is a tale of two crises. Ordinary working people, pensioners and students are being hammered with the cost of inflation, but they see simultaneously that some people are doing very well out of it. The Oxfam report published last week shows that Ireland's nine billionaires saw their assets and wealth increase by 55% last year. The energy companies see their profits going through the roof. The billionaires, millionaires and the CEOs of the DAA, who seem to be more interested in setting up airports in Saudi Arabia than in sorting out the problems at Dublin Airport, are doing very well. For workers, pensioners, students and ordinary people, however, the measures the Government is taking are simply not enough. This is because the Government will not address the elephant in the room, namely, the gross inequalities in income and wealth that exist in our society.

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