Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Anyone who steps inside a supermarket or a store these days knows full well food prices across a range of items are increasing all the time. Families are under huge pressure because they must struggle to pay these costs for basics but they are also struggling to pay electricity bills, fuel bills and so forth. I understand from reports on this issue that the cost of food across the EU has jumped by 7.1% in the past year. That is almost double the rate of inflation of 3.6% in the EU-27, according to the figures released on 2 June by EUROSTAT, which is the EU's statistics office.

We need concrete actions from the Minister of State. The Rural Independent Group called for a mini budget to try to alleviate some of the hardship for people and we again call on the Government to do just that because people cannot wait until the budget in October. We are also confronted by the fact that getting things right in this area is an extremely difficult balancing act because as many of us in the Rural Independent Group have been highlighting for some time, although the cost of food is rising, farmers and producers continue to see below-cost selling as standard practice. It is a vicious circle. The farmer and producer experience massive hikes in the form of input costs, fertiliser price increases, green diesel and other agri contractor-related expenses but when they go to sell their goods, they continue to receive below the cost in return. Last week I called for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to look at the carbon tax on agri-diesel. I support the call of the Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland to exempt agri-diesel from carbon tax for five years in order to allow the sector to stabilise, because there are huge pressures there.

This motion calls on the Government to introduce a cost-of-living cash payment of €200 for every adult with an income of less than €30,000 and €100 for every adult with an income of between €30,000 and €60,000. I called for something similar many months ago when I suggested the Government revisit extending the children's allowance to all children over the age of 18 years who remain in full-time second level schooling. I call on the Government to do that urgently because it would be a huge help in alleviating some of the hardship.

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