Coalition of opposition parties and campaigners seeks further State intervention as inflation bites
The protest march organised by the Cost of Living Coalition travels down O'Connell Street in Dublin. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PAHundreds of people took to the streets of several Irish cities on Saturday afternoon protesting over the State’s cost of living crisis and calling for more supports in the face of soaring inflation.
The coalition behind the marches is made up of trade unionists, student and pensioner organisations and opposition political parties. Speakers at the Dublin protest included Fr Peter McVerry, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, chief executive of the Senior Citizens Parliament Sue Shaw, Independents 4 Change TD Joan Collins, Beth O’Reilly from the Union of Students in Ireland, and People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett.
“I am in despair. We have had a housing crisis for several decades and it’s simply getting worse,” he said.“What disturbs me is the lack of any urgency, the lack of any sense of crisis in addressing this problem. We have empty buildings all over this country, lying empty for many years. I see no urgency in bringing them back into use.”
Many young people “are suffering low pay, and nearly all of them are experiencing sky high rents,” he said. “Those two things together [are a] deadly combination, and it’s a reason why we need to, at the very least, freeze the rents and why we need a big increase in the minimum wage.” Instead, increases to welfare payments, the fuel allowance, and even lump-sum payments such as the household electricity credit were better targeted measures, the ESRI said, suggesting “a Christmas Bonus-style double welfare payment” had greater merit than tax cuts.
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