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

If one were to believe the ads the Government ran about the cost of living that stated people were entitled to various supports from the Government, one would think there was a lot of support for people who need exceptional needs payments and are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. My clinic was absolutely overrun in the days coming up to Christmas with people in desperate situations and it has become worse in the new year. People are seriously struggling. People need money for food and to pay heating bills and pre-pay power. People are paying up to €10 a day for gas and so on. They simply cannot afford it. People are crying in my clinic. One of the things that is an obstacle to people getting support is that there is no longer a community welfare officer whom a person can go to see. When I asked a parliamentary question about this, I was told that there is a hotline and that people can make appointments. It is simply not true. A community welfare officer cannot be seen for love nor money at the moment and desperate people are finding it impossible to access supports they badly need.

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