Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, we heard further evidence to of just how deep the cost-of-living crisis is biting households around the country. We heard it from the Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, which told us how calls to their helplines are up and, in particular, we heard it from Barnardos, which described to us in such shocking terms how so many families cannot afford decent clothes or shoes for their children, who are forced to buy open-toed shoes, sandals or flip-flops in the hope that those will last longer, and are simply unable to afford basic food. Everywhere we go we hear it. I heard from a constituent of mine in Dublin Bay South, an assistant manager in a restaurant, who told me he has started to pick up additional shifts in another restaurant, as well as shifts with a private home care provider, just to be able to keep on top of his rent and provide for his family. Another constituent on a good salary cannot find a place to rent and has now been invited to make bids in a bidding auction. The landlord is asking potential tenants to indicate what they are willing to pay because there are plenty of people who will pay more if they do not.

Yesterday, my colleague, Senator Sherlock in the Dublin Central constituency, and I visited Brother Kevin and his team in the Capuchin Day Centre in the north inner city where we heard that they are seeing a shocking increase in the numbers of families coming in for the free dinner service. These are people who are working on low incomes and bike couriers working for companies like Deliveroo who are delivering food to others but are unable to afford food for themselves. That is the shocking reality.

I heard the Taoiseach’s response to the earlier question and he is right about Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine, which has had a horrific knock-on effect, not only for all of the civilians who, even yesterday, have been so tragically killed in Ukraine, but also for all of us across Europe as we see the cost-of-living crisis deepen. The point, however, is that notwithstanding who caused the crisis, the response here is up to the Government. We have control of the response in this country. We are a country that is wealthy by European standards. We saw massive State intervention to deal with Covid-19. That public sector investment saw us pivot swiftly and well to deliver the pandemic unemployment payment, the wage support schemes and all the other measures that were introduced. We need to see that level of intervention now to address the cost-of-living crisis, whatever the cause, and acknowledge the very significant international causative factors. The response is within our control.

The Labour Party has called for measures to be introduced urgently and swiftly to address the real concerns so many families and households face. In just six weeks’ time, the back-to-school crunch is coming when families will have to deal with buying school books. They are paying increased fuel costs and seeing the cost of basic food items such as bread and milk rising. There is a real fear around that. Even a small set of targeted measures introduced now, before the summer recess, would make a difference to the confidence of families and households that they will be able to face into the winter, in which we all know the cost-of-living crisis is only going to deepen and the real hardship I saw yesterday in the Capuchin centre is going to get even worse for families and individuals.

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