Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether the Tánaiste wants to answer this question. It is about whether he does the shopping in his house. Does he go to the grocery and fill his trolley with all the food that is required for the week? If he does, has he noticed how steeply the prices have risen for ordinary grocery products in the last year? They say there is no inflation in 2024, or at least that it has dropped severely but the price of basic foodstuffs is still rising. As of April 2024, the cost of potatoes increased by 17.3%, rice by 10.6%, olive oil by 23.5%, and frozen vegetables by 10.7%. That list of goodies really equals what a normal, average and low-paid household would include in its shopping; the basic foodstuffs. There is no caviar or fresh crabmeat, just ordinary foodstuffs that families depends on. If the Tánaiste has not noticed, I certainly have, because every time I go shopping I look for the receipt to compare prices over a period. I know from talking to neighbours and people in my area that the cost of foodstuffs is crippling them.

The Barnardos survey that was published clearly backs that up. More than one in four parents did not have enough food to feed their children at some point in the last year. That is up from one in five in 2022. One in five say they are regularly unable to afford a main meal, a dinner, for their children and family. Almost half of parents said that they worry about having enough food for their children. What a disgraceful statistic in one of the richest countries in the world. Why is it happening? It is happening for a number of reasons. One is that when inflation in the past three years has been at 20% and still rising, in particular on foodstuffs, but incomes have not risen to that degree. Incomes are not even near it: they have increased by 7% on average, whether one is working or on social protection. That amounts to a real cut in income of 13% for ordinary households who spend more of their income, on average, on groceries than the likes of the Tánaiste and I do because we have a much higher income than them.

The other issue is profits, which are soaring. An ECB report said that profit margin increases contributed hugely to the cost-of-living increases. When we look at the operating profits of Tesco, for example, a shop well known for its inflated prices on ordinary groceries, they were €120 million plus for 2023. SuperValu saw an increase in turnover to €4.7 billion during 2022 and profit margins at Musgraves also increased. Then we have the banks. AIB had an exception profit margin of €2 billion. The ESB's profits rose to €868 million.

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