Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Vol. 1023 No. 1

Rising Food Prices: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

The following motion was moved by Deputy Claire Kerrane:
That Dáil Éireann:
recognises that:
— food prices are continuing to rise, with groceries expected to cost €780 more over the next 12 months;
— new research has found that 62 per cent of people feel they will have to cut back on food spending over the coming year; and
— Sinn Féin have proposed a suite of solutions that would provide badly needed relief to households, to include:
— putting a month's rent back into renters' pockets;
— reducing childcare fees by two-thirds;
— increasing the minimum wage and social welfare rates;
— establishing a discretionary fund to assist households with utility debt;
— relaxing the rules around Exceptional Needs Payments; and
— re-introducing walk-in access to Community Welfare Officers;
notes, with increasing concern, that the rising price of food and groceries is forcing many families to go without and is evidenced by the steep increase in the number and range of families now seeking assistance from food banks;
acknowledges that:
— some of the drivers of rising prices are outside of this Government's control, but the actions necessary to protect people from its worst effects and to ensure the outworkings of international factors are experienced fairly and without avoidable hardship are within this Government's gift; and
— the Government cannot protect everybody from every price increase, but they can and should do more; and
calls on the Government to introduce a cost of living cash payment of €200 for every adult with an income less than €30,000 and €100 for every adult with an income between €30,000 and €60,000.

I thank Deputy Kerrane of Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion, which we support. Any contribution to people who are being absolutely hammered with cost-of-living increases should be welcomed. We are happy to support the motion.

I want to set out what I believe needs to be a really comprehensive and radical package to deal with the inflation and cost-of-living crisis that people are enduring. There is a need for us to recognise that something is rotten in the way our economic system operates. If we do not get to the bottom of that, we are not going to either solve this problem or stop lurching from crisis to crisis, which is what we do. We do that because we allow the market to dictate what happens in our society, with commercial concerns coming before planning for the needs of society.

Consider the mess at Dublin Airport. That is a Covid-related supply chain bottleneck according to the Government. When it replies to our criticism, the Government says that it is not its fault and that it is a Covid-related supply chain bottleneck. This was what the Minister of State said. What does that actually mean? I believe it is just jargon and rubbish to try to cover up what is actually happening. I will outline what it actually means. The CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, was previously head of Brown Thomas. It baffles me what those two things have to do with each other. Somebody who used to run Brown Thomas is running the DAA. Another person who is running it is a former Goldman Sachs banker. They are running the DAA and during Covid they said they were going to get rid of 1,000 workers because not as many people were travelling as used to be the case. They decided to take advantage of that opportunity to get rid of people. They knew they would have to rehire them. When they knew it was time to do so, they would have taken a decision to give them absolutely rubbish contracts in order that they can have a workforce that can be turned on and off like a tap. They would also have decided to guarantee those people only 20 hours' work a week but with the proviso that they must be on call for 40. Furthermore, they would have decided to pay them €14 per hour. Is it any wonder that people are not exactly jumping over themselves for those jobs or that the DAA has a problem retaining people in them? The DAA wants to hire people but does not want to pay them properly. It wants a workforce it can turn on and turn off. That is what a supply chain bottleneck looks like. It is people running our most important piece of national transport infrastructure on a for-profit basis at the expense of the workers who are needed to make the place function. The workers are treated like dirt, which is phrased as being "flexible", but, of course, eventually workers just do not want to do that. The people at the top have awarded themselves packages of €366,000 in pay and pension entitlements. They have also decided to run two airports down in Saudi Arabia for one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, and are setting up duty-free shops all over the world. This is because they are interested in money. They are not interested in making our infrastructure work; they are interested in money.

Does this sound familiar in the context of some of the other things affecting the cost of living, such as, for example, the cost of housing, accommodation and rent? The people running that sector are interested in making money out of it. If there is a shortage of housing, they actually make more money. In fact, they have absolutely no interest in creating a situation where there might be either a sufficient supply or an excess of housing. Why would they possibly do that when, if they did, they would not make as much money? That is how our housing sector works.

One can also go through the list of areas where it is about people making money rather than supplying food, as was just mentioned. Our entire system of agriculture has been set up to supply export markets, which is a global market-led approach, rather than meeting the need for food and a diversity of food supply, which would be necessary to deliver locally-produced food of all types to the people of this country on a sustainable and secure basis. No. We are geared up for the market and we are geared up for the beef barons and certain people who control the dairy sector to make money. It does not work for the producers and it does not work for the ordinary consumers, but by God does it work for the beef barons, for Tesco and for all of the rest of them. That is the elephant in the room. While ordinary people are hammered with the cost-of-living crisis, Tesco's profits, energy companies' profits, Shell's profits, BP's profits and corporate profits generally in Ireland are all through the roof. That is what is going on. Inflation is not some sort of interesting economic phenomenon. Inflation is about making money for the people who control the things that we need to make our society function.

That is right.

That is what it is about. One can look at any sector, but that is what we have to address. My God, even Boris Johnson has, under pressure, been forced to acknowledge this point at some level and introduce a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies that are making a fortune. In the past week, Oxfam produced a report showing that if we put a 1.5% tax on everyone in this country who has more than €4 million in wealth, we could raise €5 billion annually.

My God, would that not do a lot to protect ordinary people from the rising cost of living to deliver affordable housing and so on? I think it would.

I will start with some questions. Will the cost-of-living crisis lead to an increase in the number of people who steal food from shops in order to eat or provide for their families? If so, how will the law react? Will people be prosecuted? In Britain, there is public debate around this question. Why is there no such debate here? Earlier this month, the new chief inspector of the constabulary in England and Wales, Andy Cooke, said the cost-of-living crisis will trigger an increase in crime and that officers should use their discretion in deciding whether to prosecute people who steal in order to eat. The following day, his views were challenged by Tory Minister Kit Malthouse, who said that crime causes poverty, not vice versa, and urged prosecutions.

I believe crimes are being committed in our supermarkets, by the billionaire owners of the major chains. I believe it is criminal for Tesco to make profits of €2.2 billion, pre-tax, in the UK and the Republic of Ireland in 2021, which is double the profits for 2020, at a time when some people are unable to feed their families or are forced to choose between heating and eating. It is not illegal for these chains to charge the prices they charge but it should be. The Government should make it so by using its powers under sections 61 and 62 of the Consumer Protection Act 2007 to control prices.

I also do not believe a parent who steals a packet of nappies for their child should be prosecuted. To be crystal clear, I am not advocating for shoplifting; I am opposing prosecution in cases such as those I have outlined. Having said that, if things keep going the way they are going, I wonder whether the "Can't pay, won't pay" movement from 1970s Italy, where people loaded their trolleys and walked out of supermarkets as an organised group without paying the price increases might not happen here in the future. In the meantime, I advocate for a different form of mass protest. I hope people take to the streets in large numbers to demand a €15 minimum wage, a freeze on food prices and legislation to cut rents. They will have opportunities in Dublin, Cork and around the country on 18 June. I hope workers put in claims for pay increases that match inflation and back that up with ballots for industrial action. Inflation is class warfare, with the rich robbing the poor. It is time for ordinary people to unite and act in defence of our own interests.

Today, families around the country are being hammered. Hundreds of thousands of families are living from overdraft to overdraft and many others are completely maxed out. Families are going without food and heat. Energy prices are sky-rocketing. It is incredible that people are spending time awake at night trying to work out what bill they can afford to pay and how they will make ends meet. Some of the advice we have gotten from the Government in response to this is incredible. Ministers have told us to drive slowly and shop around. Today, inflation hit 8.2% in this State. That is an incredible level. That money is coming out of the people's pockets.

There are obviously a number of reasons for this, some of which are international and beyond the control of the Government, but many are local and in the control of the Government. It is interesting that the Government is now blaming Covid supply chains for some of the breakdowns leading to this inflation. This Government imposed the longest and most severe lockdowns on supply chains in all of Europe. The Government's policies led directly, in many ways, to the crisis people are now experiencing in their pockets. The Government is in control of the fuel issue as well. Over 50% of the price of a litre of fuel is Government tax. The higher price the fuel goes, the more the Government makes. Last year, the Government made €1.5 billion extra in VAT as a result of the increased cost of fuel. The Minister of State is refusing to look at VAT on fuel. He said the Government's hands are tied by the EU on this but the Government did not feel the same reticence in reducing VAT on hotels, for example. There was no problem with that. Some in that sector are now gouging tourists and locals alike with regard to prices. The profits and turnovers of many energy firms are rocketing. Some of these are local, including the ESB. The ESB made a profit of €679 million up to December 2021. It is a State-owned company and yet it is still increasing the price of electricity for consumers. The Government, as the majority shareholder of the ESB, could ask it to reduce the pressure on families but it will not.

Last week, Aontú raised the issue of the M50 tolls. If there was ever a monument to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael waste, it has to be the two toll bridges on the M50. They were built at a cost of €58 million in a public-private partnership signed off on by Pádraig Flynn, who, it later became known from a tribunal, received a donation from the successful company. That company charged tolls on those bridges for years. It recouped the cost of building those toll bridges in just one year. It then sold those bridges to the State for €600 million, after making a massive profit on it. Since 2009, the Government has recouped €1.3 billion on these tolls on the busiest road in the country. This Government is in charge of that. It could reduce the pressure on families by reducing or scrapping that toll but it will not.

Regarding food prices, today's farm inflation is tomorrow's consumer inflation. Last year, the price of fertiliser increased by 149%. Now 78% of farmers are going to reduce the amount of fertiliser they use. This is coupled with the fact that the price of cattle coming into farm has increased by 22% and feed prices are going up. Even before this inflation came into being, farmers were barely making a living in this country. Aontú has asked for the Government to subsidise fertiliser prices but it has refused to do so. As a result, after this harvest, the increased prices in the inputs of farming will mean increased prices on the shelves for consumers. In all these situations, the Government is refusing to act. Before this inflation crisis hit, this State was the sixth most expensive country in Europe, and Dublin the fourth most expensive city, because the Government will not reform the sectors that are maximising profits. Even when the Troika were here, they pointed the finger at closeted sectors the Government would not reform. There is a laissez-faire attitude from this Government when it comes to fixing the cost of living and that laissez-faire attitude is costing people dearly.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion, allowing us time to highlight the increasing price of food and how that problem has been made worse by Government actions. I again feel it is necessary to draw attention to the increase in carbon tax as one of the causes of price increases everywhere, including for food. To take it from its origin, the farmers who sow the crops have been hit with increased fuel costs via the carbon tax. Farmers are also faced with higher costs on the shelves because what they buy in the agricultural shop or hardware shop has increased in cost due to higher transport costs, caused in part by carbon taxes. Before ever sowing the crop, it is more expensive to plough, harrow and prepare for sowing. The carbon tax also makes it more expensive to sow, maintain and harvest everything. It is then more expensive for those transporting the produce to the factories and the mills. When the final products are produced, it is more expensive to transport them to wholesalers and retailers all over the country. All those extra costs are paid by the consumer when they take the finished item from the shelf and bring it to the cash register. Food costs are rising by 7.5% year on year. As I said before, it is the poorest people who are hit hardest by this. They are the ones who have to make tough choices but they are also the least likely to be able to afford the green alternatives. There are struggles in different sectors. The pigmeat sector has been particularly vocal in expressing its troubles, with pig feed costs almost doubling in the last two years.

Scrapping carbon taxes would help significantly to reduce the costs, not only of fuel but of everything that has to be transported using that fuel, that is, not just the food on the table but the clothes on our backs and the shoes on our feet. It would also ease the cost burden faced by everyone who has to travel for work, such as rural Ireland dwellers, our home carers and tradespeople travelling hundreds of miles to build the accommodation so badly needed in our cities. Social Justice Ireland has highlighted that the overall poverty rate has increased from 11.6% to 19% - not a statistic to be proud of.

There is a need to call out the Government's hypocrisy when it comes to its attitude to dealing with the cost of living crisis and blaming the EU rules. We have heard umpteen times the Government using EU rules as an excuse not to reduce VAT on fuel or heating oil, yet when it comes to the rights of people with disabilities, the Government continues to ignore the rules of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure compliance. It seems, therefore, that we can ignore our commitments when it suits the Government and apply rules that suit the Government to the detriment of our citizens.

Another issue caused by Government actions is the transient accommodation crisis. I received an email from a representative of the company Mastiff, based in Taghmon, County Wexford. It states:

Over the last few weeks we have faced a number of issues with meeting contracts due to the lack of accommodation and the cost of what is available. We cannot expect our workers to pay the best part of their daily wage on accommodation. We also cannot expect these men to travel 2-4 hours home at the end of the day and return for work in the morning with a 7-8am start, this would not be safe practice.

[...]

There are workers now refusing to go to work due to the cost and we are unable to increase the contribution, we must operate within revenue guidelines. This will have an impact on the market and we are seeing steady growth in our sector, this summer will be very busy and this is a concern now as there will be the added issue of tourism and students looking for housing throughout the season.

Mastiff is a wholly Wexford-owned and based company, employing 110 people, and its contribution is invaluable to the construction sector.

If the Government reduced its tax take on fuel to reflect the emergency situation by removing excise duties and other duties and applying VAT to the product only at the base rate in the short term, 1 l of petrol and diesel would cost €1.12 and €1.28, respectively, tomorrow morning. That would be radical, meaningful action to combat the soaring cost of living and to prevent people from not being able to afford to go to work or from having to decide between heating and eating. Does it have the cajones to do it?

I thank Deputy Kerrane and Sinn Féin for organising this timely debate. The cost of fuel, especially diesel and petrol, is the main contributory reason for the increased cost of food. Lorry transport costs have increased significantly and farmers face increased costs to produce food. Whether they are dairy or beef farmers or tillage farmers, the savage extra cost of diesel alone and the considerable cost of fertiliser are driving production costs through the roof.

The Government should and could take less tax from fuel. It has been raking it in since the base cost increased. Other countries are taking less tax. Why can the Government not do the same? It is not fair on people who have to pay to go on the road, that is, every man or woman with a wheel. They are paying savage costs and it will not be long until they are ground to a halt. The Government could take less tax and that would help. We have to start somewhere, and as the teacher said to me long ago when I was in school, when you are unravelling a stocking, you should begin at the toe. We have to begin where the trouble started and that is with the increased costs, which have to be reduced.

The cost of electricity is also driving everything mad and it has increased every day since the Government closed Bord na Móna. The Government stonewalled and said it would have to get permission from the EU to reduce VAT on fuel, but no permission was needed when VAT was being increased. I have never heard of the Government having to go to the EU for permission to increase VAT, yet it had to ask the EU, or so it claimed, to be allowed to bring it down.

I too thank Deputy Kerrane and Sinn Féin for bringing this very important motion before the House. The public are facing unprecedentedly hard times, with inflation at a record high at 8.2% in this month of May. We would have to go back to 1983 to find similar inflation figures here previously. If the Government were seriously to consider reducing the taxes that have been put on diesel and petrol, we could reduce the cost of fuel by 65%. Doing that is within the gift and the power of the Government and it would be meaningful and real and would have a major and immediate effect.

In the context of this debate on the price of food, I have been the owner of a small shop for many years and I know at first hand the effect the increases are having. We are living in a country where nothing can be distributed or taken around. Nothing falls out of the sky for us; it all has to go by road. Obviously, there has been a massive increase in the costs of transportation, whether that is the fuel itself or the running costs of lorries and vans. Even for people who deliver newspapers every day, there is a cost to keep tyres and a vehicle maintained and on the road. It is a never-ending cycle of increases and at the end of the day it is the consumer who pays for everything.

The Taoiseach admitted earlier that he was worried and concerned. If he is so bloody well concerned, why does he come into the House and put more taxes, in the guise of carbon taxes, onto the hard-pressed public? Now is not a time to be putting on carbon taxes and other additional taxes. It is a time to reduce, as a temporary measure, the taxes we have in place to ensure people will be able to afford to live, feed their families and keep bread on the table. We definitely have to do something, yet the Government seems to be hell-bent on nailing everybody to the cross. It has done nothing about the increase in energy costs. People's fuel bills have rocketed to unprecedented figures and there are also the issues faced by people running small businesses. I was contacted the other day by the owner of a chip shop whose monthly bill now stands at between €8,000 and €9,000, which is unsustainable.

The Minister of State was elected to represent the people. What is he going to say to the husbands, wives and children in this country when they cannot get adequate food to feed their family? Shop owners have told me their turnover has increased by 10% on last year. They tell me the margin on the products they buy into their shop are down by 5% but that their running costs mean they will now have slimmer profit margins than those which they had last year, even though they are turning over more money. The Government has done nothing about this but increased taxes. That is where the price increases in all the shops stem from. The increase in transport costs has resulted in an increase in the cost of producing food, and the answer of the Government, which was elected to protect the people, is one of tax. Let us make the problem of inflation worse by taxing everyone in this country out of existence, but come September of this year, when people have to get their children back to school, they will look to the Government and what it has done to their families.

When they look at their shopping bills and try to put clothes on their children and food in their lunch boxes to get them to school, they will remember the Government. The cheapest meat you can get at the moment is luncheon sausage. That has gone up 25% since last week. The packet of ham, which was always €4, is now €4.70. The pound of butter has gone up by 20%. That is all down to taxes because this country is completely reliant on fossil fuels as we have no alternatives and the answer of this Government is tax, tax, tax. We will take in more tax but give nothing back. The Government should reduce its take on fuel. It would help everything in this country to do with the production of food.

Anyone who steps inside a supermarket or a store these days knows full well food prices across a range of items are increasing all the time. Families are under huge pressure because they must struggle to pay these costs for basics but they are also struggling to pay electricity bills, fuel bills and so forth. I understand from reports on this issue that the cost of food across the EU has jumped by 7.1% in the past year. That is almost double the rate of inflation of 3.6% in the EU-27, according to the figures released on 2 June by EUROSTAT, which is the EU's statistics office.

We need concrete actions from the Minister of State. The Rural Independent Group called for a mini budget to try to alleviate some of the hardship for people and we again call on the Government to do just that because people cannot wait until the budget in October. We are also confronted by the fact that getting things right in this area is an extremely difficult balancing act because as many of us in the Rural Independent Group have been highlighting for some time, although the cost of food is rising, farmers and producers continue to see below-cost selling as standard practice. It is a vicious circle. The farmer and producer experience massive hikes in the form of input costs, fertiliser price increases, green diesel and other agri contractor-related expenses but when they go to sell their goods, they continue to receive below the cost in return. Last week I called for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to look at the carbon tax on agri-diesel. I support the call of the Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland to exempt agri-diesel from carbon tax for five years in order to allow the sector to stabilise, because there are huge pressures there.

This motion calls on the Government to introduce a cost-of-living cash payment of €200 for every adult with an income of less than €30,000 and €100 for every adult with an income of between €30,000 and €60,000. I called for something similar many months ago when I suggested the Government revisit extending the children's allowance to all children over the age of 18 years who remain in full-time second level schooling. I call on the Government to do that urgently because it would be a huge help in alleviating some of the hardship.

We move to Deputy Joan Collins. Does she know if her colleague Deputy Pringle will be here?

I am not sure. I thought he would have been here. He is expected here.

The Deputy is not sure. She has five minutes.

I thank the Acting Chairman. I have been at stalls in my constituency over the last couple of weeks to build for the demonstration on 18 June by the Cost of Living Coalition. There is much anger and frustration from workers and people on social welfare. I was talking to a young woman who has two children. She said she has been really impacted by the rise in the cost of her shop. She made the point that a pack of toilet roll that was €2.90 up to a couple of weeks ago has now gone up to €5.20. Another young woman and her husband work in the hospitality sector and are low-paid workers. They have four children and she said her weekly shop has gone up from between €100 and €110 up to around €150. That is about €45 per week extra, which is more than €2,000 per year on food alone. That is how the increased cost of living has impacted on them, without taking in energy and the other costs that have gone up.

Many people raised the issue of the €450 million given to developers to do the job they are supposed to do. People expect the Government to assist people in particular in lower-income households over the next period.

On the radio this morning there was a three-day piece on the cost of living in food shops and the impact on food. Kantar research stated that 62% of families are cutting back on food and this particular researcher had a receipt from a shop he did this time last year. He did the exact same shop for the exact same items this year and made the point the shop was up 20%. He said 454 g of butter, which is a pound of butter, has gone up from €2.19 to €2.99, which is a 36% increase. The price of 2 l of milk has gone from €1.49 to €1.89, which is a 26% increase. Chicken has gone up 29%. These are the real facts people are facing every day of the week while their incomes have not changed, and that is the issue.

While the Government said it is external factors, etc., that have impacted on inflation, it must do more to alleviate the crisis for families. Food retailers have announced their sales have decreased by 6% in the last 12 weeks. That means people are cutting back. Food inflation alone will have gone up at least 8% by the end of the year and possibly even more. Dr. Michael Drew from St. Vincent de Paul has written a book about the hidden deprivation of food. He said 350,000 people, which is 7% of the population, are impacted by food poverty. Social Justice Ireland was also on the radio yesterday. Its economic researcher, Colette Bennett, made the point the poverty rate is 11.6%, which is 580,000 people, but increases to 19% or 1 million people, when you factor in mortgages and rent payments. Overall, the poverty rate in owner-occupied homes is one in 12 and for renters it is one in five. For people with a disability she said the pre-housing poverty rate is 39.1%, which means two in five people with a disability living in poverty. That increases to more than one in two when you factor in the costs of housing. These are all realities people are living in at the moment.

Inflation went up by 7% in April and has gone up again this month. Rents went up by 12%. Almost 1 million people were forced below the poverty line in the past year when rents are taken into account and an extra 300,000 people found themselves in this position last year. Everything is going up, including rents, food and energy costs, but the only incomes doing so are those of the already well-paid. The Government has done very little to alleviate this crisis and working-class families and those on low incomes are being hit the hardest. The one-off payment for electricity bills was welcome but is not enough. The reduction in fares is welcome but we should have free public transport if the Government wants to take serious measures to tackle the climate crisis.

We cannot rely on the Minister of State's Government to take serious action. We need to organise for the minimum wage to be increased and move to a €15 per hour living wage. The €5 increase in welfare and State pensions in the last budget was an insult. We need a €10 increase at minimum. We need to freeze, then lower, rents and ban evictions. We need to scrap college fees and build public student accommodation. Importantly - and this is an issue I have raised on a number of occasions - we need a specific emergency hardship fund for those who are struggling with bills. The community welfare officers should be relocated back into the community for at least two to three days per week to make such payments more accessible. We need a windfall tax on the super profits of companies in the energy sector to help pay for these measures. I support the motion brought forward by Deputy Kerrane and appeal to people to come out on the streets on 18 June and put a shot across the bow of this Government to show people cannot tolerate this level of inflation, especially those at the poorest levels, on low incomes and on social welfare payments.

I thank Deputies for an engaging discussion on the important issue of rising food prices. As was already outlined by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, I assure Deputies the fundamental objective of the Government's policy approach to this issue is to take action, monitor the impact of those actions, consult bodies such as the Low Pay Commission, take the suggestions of this House on board and then respond appropriately at the right time.

One of the facets of rising food prices, as part of a wider increase in inflation, is the increased risk of food poverty in our society. This is an area for which I have both a personal concern and a key responsibility. In fact, this morning I joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to speak at the launch of the book on food poverty that Deputy Joan Collins mentioned. In respect of rising food prices and food poverty, the roadmap for social inclusion, for which I have responsibility, is a whole-of-government strategy to reduce poverty and reduce social exclusion and marginalisation in Ireland. The roadmap includes a commitment to develop a comprehensive programme of work to explore further the drivers of food poverty and to identify mitigating actions. On foot of this, last year I established a working group on food poverty to deliver on this commitment. I chair the group and the membership comprises representatives from relevant Departments as well as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Crosscare and the Children's Rights Alliance.

The food poverty working group has focused on two pieces of work to date. The first is a high-level mapping exercise of programmes, services and supports already in existence across government that are tasked with addressing elements of food poverty and providing supports in this area, including everything from hot school meals to meals-on-wheels. A key issue for the future is ensuring that these supports are provided in a coherent manner and in locations where they are needed and availed of by people who need them, to ensure that the services operate as effectively and efficiently as possible in mitigating food poverty. The second piece of work is the development of a research proposal to identify the drivers of food poverty in two case study areas, one urban and one rural, and to examine the range of service providers and actors relating to food poverty in each area. It should also identify any gaps and overlaps in service provision. The findings from this research should further inform the delivery of this commitment as part of the roadmap for social inclusion.

In addition, the Department of Social Protection helps to address food poverty directly through the fund of European aid to the most deprived, FEAD, which supports EU member states' actions to provide food and material assistance to the most deprived. FEAD Ireland received funding of €26 million for the period 2014 to 2020, with over 150 charities nationwide distributing food to their communities. The Department also delivers the school meals programme, which provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,500 schools and organisations, benefiting 230,000 children. A budget of over €68 million has been provided for the scheme in 2022.

I reiterate that the Government is keenly aware of the recent price increases and their impact on households and businesses in Ireland. For this reason the Government acted early in providing a response package. The February package was particularly targeted on the impact of rising costs on fixed-income and low-income households. To summarise, the Government's range of measures included energy credits, excise and VAT reductions on fuel and energy, the extension of the low VAT rate for tourism and hospitality, reducing the caps for multiple children on school transport fees, maintaining the enhancement to the diesel rebate scheme and reducing public transport fees by 20%. All these measures help all households but are of particular benefit to families on low incomes. We specifically targeted low-income households through additional fuel allowance payments which were provided in March and May, €125 and €100 lump sums, respectively, to over 370,000 qualifying low-income households. The overall fuel allowance increase for 2022 has been €355, bringing the total annual payment for fuel allowance to €1,139 per eligible household.

This approach of focusing measures so that they benefit lower-income households is important, as we know that these households have less capacity to absorb price increases. To the extent that prices of basic goods such as food are increasing, these households are more vulnerable to risk of poverty and deprivation than other households. These measures maintain the trend supported by Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, research of complementing general tax and social protection measures with specific measures designed to support those at higher risk of poverty. The full impact of the measures taken to date has yet to feed through, but the Government will continue to monitor the situation, both nationally and internationally, including price developments, in planning future actions and in preparing for the budget. We intend, as we have to date, to complement broader-based welfare and tax changes with targeted measures to support the most vulnerable households at highest risk of poverty.

To conclude, I thank the Members for their time and engagement this evening. It is important to ensure that these issues remain a focus of all Members of the House during a unique period of rising inflation both nationally and internationally. I assure Members that all suggestions and proposals will receive due consideration as the Government continues to respond to the unfolding situation.

I do not have to tell the Minister of State that the cost of living is affecting people from all walks of life. People are struggling with the rising cost of rent, the cost of trying to buy a house, the price of fuel and the rising cost of food. Social Justice Ireland has found that almost 1 million people are living in poverty in the State while the Central Statistics Office, CSO, predicts a dramatic rise in the amount of money people will have to spend on food over the next year. The CSO estimates an additional €780 will be spent on groceries next year by consumers due to the cost of living. This is a huge increase for those on lower incomes and those depending on State support payments such as the old age pension. When it is coupled with other excessive prices for electricity and gas it is an increase that cannot be managed.

People in my city often turn to Depaul Ireland, the Simon Community and the wonderful community centres we have across the city. For example, St. Munchin's Community Centre on the north side of Limerick prepares and ensures that hundreds of meals are distributed in the city and across the region every day. While this was very evident during the pandemic, the work continues daily. People would be lost without these vital community services. They would literally be going hungry.

People are looking to the Government for solutions or support, but very little of either has been offered. The Government has often been far too slow to react. Rents have been allowed to spiral out of control, with a 14.1% increase experienced by renters in my city of Limerick, and childcare and energy costs are through the roof. The Government's response has been haphazard, untargeted and unambitious. Time and again we have called for the Government to introduce supports for households that are struggling with rising costs. We want those struggling to be aided by the State with a real intervention and we want to put workers and families first.

In the short time I have, I will refer to a comment that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Fleming, made. I was not surprised to hear the Minister of State say it earlier because I often hear Ministers say that people can contact their local community welfare office. I can tell exactly what happens when that is said. First, the staff will be overwhelmed with the number of presentations they get. The staff tell me this happens every time a Minister spouts this in the Dáil or in the media. Second, little, if any, payment will be made to them. Can the Minister of State and his colleagues please do us all a favour and stop hiding behind the fig leaf of pretending that going to the community welfare office will be a solution? It is not. It often never works.

The truth is that food is just the latest necessity to see substantial price hikes. That is not an accident. Farm input costs have been increasing dramatically for several months, indeed, for the past year, and the Government has failed to act adequately. It was warned that this would happen if it did not act. Costs of fuel, one very important input, have been rising. There are international factors at play, but the Government actually forced higher prices. When it increased the carbon tax it increased the cost of producing food and the cost of transporting food. Hey presto, food prices have soared. Then we hear a Minister of State tell us tonight that the Government will not be found wanting. It has been found wanting on every single parameter when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis that so many workers and families are experiencing.

We have advocated for years that we must freeze rents and put a month's rent back into people's pockets. The Government has refused to act. On mortgages, we had the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, calling for the European Central Bank to intervene, essentially calling for an interest rate hike. No action has been taken on childcare costs, one of the major costs facing many families, to date. We have seen token measures on energy. There was a €200 rebate, which was wiped out before it was even implemented. On fuel, the Government gives with one hand in terms of minimal excise reductions but then it takes with the other through increases in the carbon tax. As regards heating costs, it has done nothing whatsoever in respect of home heating oil other than to force the price higher through carbon taxes. Then there are its harebrained ideas to ban some sources of home heating fuel.

The huge costs people are now enduring for food are again partly the result of this Government's failure to act. What has been proposed so far to support families with rising food costs? Nothing yet, and listening to the remarks of the Ministers of State nobody can have confidence that this Government either understands the scale of the crisis people are facing or has any intention of acting appropriately. All this debate has reaffirmed to me and to anybody watching it is that it is time for a change. It is time for the policies that Deputies Doherty, Kerrane and the Sinn Féin team have put forward.

It is certainly time to get the Government out of office. It is time for Sinn Féin to provide the supports our families and workers so desperately need.

I thank everybody who contributed to the debate. In particular, I commend Deputy Kerrane on tabling the motion and on championing this issue on behalf of hundreds of thousands of workers and families who continue to struggle in the face of a cost-of-living crisis. They see it in the price of food, energy and other essentials, which continues to rise. They see their bank balances struggle to keep up with the weekly shop and the monthly bill. Some have been forced to make choices nobody should have to make, including whether to eat or whether to heat, cutting back on food shopping and trying to be sparing in the use of electricity in their homes because the money simply does not go far enough.

Some people benefit from inflation, but for the vast majority there is an income squeeze. In the Dáil last week, the Tánaiste contended that the entire world faces a cost-of-living crisis, but the reality is that not everyone does. Lower-income and middle-income families face a far higher bill for their living standards, and a higher fall in living standards, than the wealthiest in society. Cutting back on food, fuel and other essentials is a crisis; having to cut back on luxury items is not. The Government simply does not understand the financial strain ordinary workers and families are under right across this State. If the Government did - if it really got it - it would have responded properly and with greater urgency than it has done. It has not because it does not get it, and that is the simple fact. In the past year, inflation has reached more than 8%. For lower-income to middle-income households, it is some way above 8%. They now see food prices rise and essentials go up in the supermarkets, and they are feeling it right in the pocket. The prices of staples such as bread and meat have gone up by more than 5%, while the prices of pasta and milk have increased by 10%. Some claim that people are living beyond their means; in fact, too many do not have the means to live. That is the reality, and those people need help from a Government that is tone-deaf to these pleas.

To date, the Government's response has been totally inadequate. Despite high levels of inflation and inflation figures we have not seen in decades, it has refused to increase working social welfare rates. That is a disgrace. Members of the Green Party, which is in government and is allowing those people who depend on these fixed incomes to become poorer in light of inflation at in excess of 8%, should quit their jobs now because it is a disgrace that they have left people struggling in that way. It is a shocking dereliction of the Government's duty to protect the most vulnerable. The Government has said its measures are targeted. The Government should not take my word for this; it should take the word of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, for it. IFAC states that of €1 billion in measures since the start of this year, €893 million were untargeted. The Government left those most vulnerable in society without any support whatsoever.

When it comes to energy prices and home heating oil, the Government is making things worse. It is increasing the costs on families and, despite multiple calls and motions from us on this side of the House and amendments we have tabled, one after the other members of the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael came in here to vote to increase the cost of living on people by pushing up carbon taxes and excise duties on those same families. The Taoiseach recently doubled down on the Government's refusal to introduce measures to support households until at least October. Even the Tories and even Boris Johnson understand that their government needed to act in a targeted fashion to protect the most vulnerable. The fact that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens still do not get it and still are more out of touch than even Boris Johnson and the Tories screams loudly.

It is not too late to act, however. That is why we tabled this motion. The Government said it will not oppose the motion. That is not what we want from the Government. We want it to act on the motion. The motion is very clear. It screams loudly to the concerns, plights and needs of hundreds of thousands of people across this State. It recognises that not everybody can be protected from every price increase but that the Government can and must do more. That is why we call on the Government to introduce cost-of-living cash payments to provide immediate financial support to those on lower and middle incomes. Sinn Féin proposes cash payments of €200 for every single adult on incomes less than €30,000 and cash payments of €100 for those on incomes between €30,000 and €60,000. This would come along with another suite of measures we have proposed such as freezing rents and putting a month's rent back into renters' pockets, increasing core social welfare rates to keep in line with inflation, cutting the cost of childcare and introducing a discretionary energy fund, which is needed. People should listen to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and not this balderdash from the Minister that such a fund exists when the dogs on the street know that is not what is needed. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is arguing for the proposal before us. Government Members should not only support it but also get off their backsides and implement it and get their heads out of the sand when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis faced by workers and families right across this State.

Question put and agreed to.
Top
Share