Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today I want to raise the issue of the cost-of-living crisis and ask for an urgent debate on the matter. Some of the Members may have seen the survey published by Barnardo's at the end of last week that showed that there were times in the past 12 months when one quarter of families across this State could not feed their children. The same survey also showed that some 41% of households have been consciously cutting back on food spending. A spokesperson for Barnardo's stated:

According to our research the cost-of-living is forcing families to choose between food and other essentials, such as energy costs. Barnardo's has seen a marked increase in demand for its services and is concerned about the toll that soaring bills are having on families' mental health.

I want to highlight how the cost-of-living crisis is hitting our nurses and healthcare workers in particular. Some of them have started to share their stories on social media and I shall quote a couple of them. One says:

I am a nurse. I am awake all night worried. I have three children and work full-time. I don't even have the petrol money to get to work next week. My ESB bill will be out on Monday. I don't even know how I will feed my children. What has this country come to? At this stage I feel like walking away from it all.

A second nurse simply says, "I can't cope with the mounting bills". The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has repeatedly raised concerns about the safety of staff, particularly at University Hospital Limerick, which continuously has the highest trolley numbers in the country and serious overcrowding issues. The staff are burned out and overwhelmed. Then they go home after a long day or night's work and worry endlessly that they will have no food on the table for their family or money to pay the bills. This is the reality of life for too many front-line workers and nurses in Ireland in 2022.

A cost-of-living crisis rally will take place at City Hall in Limerick on Saturday at 2 p.m. The protest is being organised by the national Cost of Living Coalition, with local involvement from several political and community groups, including Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats, the Socialist Party, the Postgraduates Students' Union, the Community Action Tenants Union and Limerick Suicide Watch. The Government has not done enough to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. It has even opposed taxing the windfall profits on energy companies, which is an absolutely shameful decision. There are solutions. Germany is the latest country to introduce a temporary price cap on electricity and gas. Sinn Féin has called for less than that and just a temporary cap of five months on electricity to reduce the cost of electricity over the winter period. Childcare, rents and mortgage interest costs here do not have to be the most expensive in Europe. There are solutions. What we need is a much firmer response from the Government. I call on the people of Limerick to join us at 2 p.m. this Saturday for the cost-of-living crisis rally. Show solidarity, stand up and call very clearly on this Government to do more.