We're about to become the most expensive country in the euro zone. Rosita Boland asks shoppers why we don't rise up in protest
If you thought the Republic was an expensive place to live in, this week's consumer pricing report for Forfás proved you right. We are now the second most expensive country in the euro zone, marginally behind Finland.
The report also predicts that we will become the most expensive euro-zone country later in the year. Eating out, drinking out and groceries are the areas where the wallet gets hit hardest.
But do we care? Do we notice how expensive everything has become or are we immune to it, happy to keep forking out? Why aren't we complaining and making a noise?
"As a nation we don't complain enough. We're too laid back," says Rose McCormick, a shopper browsing in Habitat on St Stephen's Green in Dublin. She notices groceries getting more expensive all the time.
"Every week something goes up 30 cent. I suppose I should complain, but the whole lot of us in Ireland are a dead loss at complaining."
Ann Marie Cregan finds eating out and socialising the worst value for money. "You expect to pay high prices in the higher end of restaurants, but the middle area is where we're really badly served. You end up paying premium prices for bad pasta, bad pizza and bad service." She admits she doesn't complain at the time; her strategy is simply not to return to what she considers to be overpriced restaurants.
"I'd hate to be rearing a family again," says Mary McCarthy, another shopper. She says she feels helpless as a consumer. "Every week I notice groceries going up, small increases, but every week. And such bad quality in fruit and veg! I do shop round, but it's all the small things I find so expensive, like a cup of coffee. But there's nowhere to complain."
Geraldine Linehan and her daughter Hannah have been shopping in the Stephen's Green centre. Geraldine rolls her eyes when asked if she finds Ireland expensive. "We've just had two cups of tea and one bun in a cafe upstairs and it was €8," she says, amazed and still hopping mad. "I did complain, but I was just told that was the price it was. But nothing ever happens, because we're not a nation of complainers."
Hannah adds: "We're getting ripped off constantly, and we whinge about it but we don't complain."
Antoinette Kleiser moved back to Dublin from London with her husband and two children last year. "Everything is more expensive - bills, gas, insurance and, especially, eating out. For groceries, we get less value for the same money as in London, where there was also better choice and quality." The Kleisers used to eat out a lot with their children in England but find prices here far higher - and for poorer food and service.
So do they complain?
"Well, the prices are displayed outside restaurants, so you know what you're getting into, so, no, we don't complain," she admits. "The only thing we could really do about it is to move abroad somewhere else, which we are thinking about."
Saidbh Byrne is browsing in Oasis. "I find I look at prices a lot more now. I never really did before; I just bought what I wanted," she says. "It's the day-to-day things I find so expensive now, like a simple coffee. Do I complain? Yes, but none of my friends do. They call me the complainer. When the place I went to for a coffee every single day increased their prices way out of scale after the euro, I complained." Byrne never went back.
John Bourke is in Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, looking for T-shirts for a trip to Barcelona. "I'm half thinking of waiting until I get there to buy them," he says. "The prices I've seen here have frightened me."
He's going to the city to visit his brother, who moved there last year because Spain was cheaper and offered him a better quality of life.
"At work, we complain all the time to each other about how expensive everything is - eating out, property, the pub - but we don't complain in shops or restaurants. I don't know why that is."
Dermott Jewell of the Consumers' Association of Ireland says: "There is a high degree of consumer apathy in Ireland. People need to complain and complain regularly rather than to themselves. If you're in the middle of a bad meal, 99 out of 100 people will say it's fine when asked. Irish consumers don't like to complain; they find it unpleasant."
So the message is that if you feel you're not getting value for money, tell the restaurant owner instead of your friends. Complain to the source. It won't ruin your night out and it will make a difference.