Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I share the concerns and questions voiced by Deputies McDonald and Shortall about public nursing homes but I want to raise the issue of the cost of living. A recently published Red C survey outlined some of the struggles people still face with the cost-of-living crisis. It found that 30% of people struggle to make ends meet, with young people and elderly people being hit the worst. Only 9% of people have not had to make any changes to their spending while 70% of people have had to reduce spending in the face of the cost-of-living crisis. This is the highest figure out of any of the 36 countries involved in the study. Bin charges are going up, rents are still skyrocketing, the price of groceries has gone up by 15% across the board and will not come back down, and standards of living in the country have dropped in three of the past four quarters. Women's Aid has said it has seen an increase in calls about domestic abuse, particularly relating to economic abuse. Homelessness is at an all-time high despite the eviction ban. I could not believe my ears when I heard the Minister say yesterday that homelessness was levelling off. This is cold comfort to the 11,632 people in emergency accommodation or the 90 asylum seekers sent out onto the streets last week. Inflation is still at a high of 9% while interest rates on tracker mortgages have rocketed. My recent gas bill was €780 when it was €347 this time last year with the same amount of units used. How are people on low wages supposed to pay these bills?

The economy may have grown by 12.2% but people are not feeling it. There is no reflection of growth in people's pay packets. Our economy is in no way set up to reflect this growth in ordinary people's lives. We hear this every day in my constituency office. Those who have had it hard for a long time are being hit the worst. While the supports put in place by this Government have helped in some way, they are not targeted enough. Age Action has said time and again that social welfare payments needed to increased by €20 in the last budget, which did not happen. The increase was €12, which was in effect a cut in people's pay packets. Age Action also called for supports to be more targeted.

The stress and hardship caused by the cost-of-living crisis are very real for many people. Many people must worry every day about how they will put food on the table, keep the lights on and keep a roof over their families' heads. The Taoiseach said there will not be a cliff edge when the cost-of-living supports end. People still need help. They are worried about losing the little help they have had and losing their homes when the eviction ban ends in April.

How will the Taoiseach guarantee that there is no cliff-edge when so many people are already on one?

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