Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle; I really appreciate it. I welcome this opportunity to discuss soaring food costs and the hardship that extortionate prices are causing for so many workers and families. The Social Democrats support this important Sinn Féin motion.

We do not talk about food enough in this House. Food is one of the absolute necessities of life. Families should be guaranteed access to affordable healthy food. That should be one of the most basic indicators of a Government's success. The Government is failing families every day, however. Just like housing and other necessities, the Government has neither the ambition nor the will to solve the crisis.

Food inflation now stands at 17%, far in excess of general inflation. Grocery bills have skyrocketed by at least €1,200 in the past year. These kinds of increases are not sustainable, especially for people like pensioners who are on fixed incomes. They are not alone, however. In 2021, nearly 450,000 people experienced food poverty. Research by Barnardos earlier this year revealed that the number of parents using food banks more than doubled in 2022 to almost one in ten parents. When that shocking study was published, the Taoiseach was more interested in disputing the results than responding to the terrifying reality that so many families are on the brink. The biggest price rises have been to staple food items. Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures for March show that fresh whole milk was up by almost one quarter, eggs by 20% and a sliced pan by 17% compared with the same last year. Prices are increasing relentlessly at a time when households have to choose between heating or eating and when parents go without meals or without feeding their children. Pensioners, disabled people, single parents and others on low and middle incomes are feeling the pain most acutely.

The Government claims it is helping, but it is completely out of touch. One-off measures, miserly increases in social protection rates and delayed action on energy prices have allowed the situation to get even worse for families. The Government should be prioritising two key interventions to help people, namely, increasing supports for low- and middle-income earners and tackling the obscene profiteering by retailers and wholesalers. The Government did not use the budget to address this crisis. It was obliged to announce further cost-of-living supports earlier this year. However, it has not addressed the underlying structural issues that have left more and more families vulnerable to an out-of-control market. It is not because it does not have the capacity to do it; it is because there is no political will.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, responding to the budget in September, pointed out that "the failure to increase social welfare payments in line with inflation puts many people at risk next year of being pulled further into the kind of grinding daily hardship that is ... [so] difficult to escape." Small increases to social welfare rates at levels that fall short of inflation are not sufficient to lift people out of poverty. They increase the risk of poverty for single-parent families, pensioners and anyone on a low income. The disgraceful lack of targeted support for disabled people exemplified the Government's disregard for those most in need. The Department of Social Protection's cost of disability report showed that even before the cost-of-living crisis, it cost up to €12,000 more to live with a disability in Ireland. We all know that is an underestimation. What was the Government's response? A one-off payment. As well as being insufficient, this was insulting. Disability is not one-off or temporary so why would the supports be one-off? The Social Democrats proposed a €20 per week cost of disability payment as a first step to the State finally recognising that the costs associated with disability are recurring, unavoidable and hugely expensive. Disabled people and others who are facing ongoing economic disadvantage need to be supported with permanent measures, not one-off payments.

Another major and long overdue intervention is the regulation of the food sector. As it stands, there is a complete absence of oversight of pricing. We can see the result of this in the massive increase in food banks, charities distributing food vouchers and the thousands of families wondering how they will put food on the table. These are symptoms of a sector that is out of control. Primary producers are not stoking this greedflation. Many of them are also struggling to get by. Even though food prices are rising rapidly, in some cases, farmers and fishers are actually making less, especially smaller farmers and inshore fishers. Bord Iascaigh Mhara's, BIM, recent report entitled An Economic Analysis of the Irish Small-scale Fleet makes for grim reading. The net profit fishers make is, in effect, their salary, which is already very low compared with average incomes. These profits are being slashed by rising operating costs. The report's projections warn that polyvalent potters with vessels under 6 m will "see their net profit fall by 50% ... [and] in the 6-10m class the impacts range from a 33% reduction ... for the pelagic vessels to a 70% reduction for the potters."

These fishers are certainly not profiting from the almost 27% increase in frozen fish prices in shops over the past year. The whole sector is in crisis. These vessels make up the majority of our fishing fleet and yet the Government is refusing to give them the support they need to address soaring fuel costs. The BIM report outlines the pressures inshore fishers are facing and yet the Minister is refusing to draw from European funding mechanisms to address the needs the sector has identified. Fishers will simply withdraw from the sector. Not only are these irreplaceable jobs in coastal and island communities but they are also an important part of our culture. This is all being put needlessly at risk by Government inaction.

Sheep farmers are another group who are struggling to get by. Again, the increases in sheep meat prices for consumers bears no relation to the prices farmers receive. The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association said that farmers need to be paid €8.30 per kilogram for lamb for it to be a viable sector. The price farmers were receiving was €8.10, but it has been as little as €7.50 this year.

Farmers are working below the cost of production, which is simply unsustainable. The value of sheep meat rose in 2022, while massive increases in operating costs saw profits for farmers plummeting. There have been repeated calls for a rescue package to address the situation but the Government has again refused. These cases highlighted a much larger problem in the agrifood sector. The people at both ends of the supply chain, that is, consumers and producers, are being squeezed. Families have to pay more for food while farmers and fishers are getting less for the same produce. It is glaringly obvious that the larger retailers, wholesalers, meat factories and food processors are cleaning up here. They are the ones profiting. That became even clearer last week when supermarket groups reduced prices on selected items in a headline-grabbing gimmick. While any reduction in prices is welcome, these stunts reveal the retailers' capacity to suddenly lower prices when it suits them. The Government needs to direct the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, to investigate these issues immediately. This motion rightly emphasises that to fulfil the CCPC's function to promote and protect the interests of consumers, the entire sector needs to be put under a microscope.

There is an important opportunity for the Government to bring in a new system to oversee the food supply chains in a way that will protect both consumers and primary producers. However, the agriculture and food supply chain Bill 2022 falls far short of this. I have repeatedly called for a proper independent regulator with the capability to unrestrictedly develop and implement regulations and commensurate powers to investigate potential violations and implement the law. Instead, consumers, farmers, fishers and other producers are being offered a new office that is a regulator in name only. The capacity to make regulations will remain with the Minister who, to date, has been unwilling to tackle the big players profiting from the work of producers and the cost to consumers. The new office also need powers to investigate anti-competitive practices in the agrifood supply chain. The regulatory office will be able to carry out some forms of investigation and collate information but ultimately that will be it. It will amount to nothing more than more reports unless there are grossly unfair practices involved. We need a regulatory system that can intervene in the market and establish fair prices for producers and consumers. This is about ensuring families can afford to feed their children and guaranteeing that our farmers, fishers and small-scale producers can make a living.

All of this is achievable. In the absence of Government action, I am working on a Private Members' Bill in this area. I am trying to do what the Government is unwilling to do to support food producers and to protect consumers at the same time.

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