The organisers of a march to protest against increases in the cost of living say they expect “thousands and thousands and thousands” of people to attend the event in Dublin next Saturday.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett was speaking this morning at a press conference by the Cost of Living Coalition, a group of over 30 organisations, trade unions, political parties and NGOs, to publicise the march.
Mr Boyd-Barrett said he did not want to be drawn on a number that was expected but he and others invoked the anti-water charges marches of eight years ago as an example to be emulated, with “thousands and thousands and thousands” expected,” he said.
The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said there was “anxiety across society” about increased costs and said that “you could not exaggerate the pressure people are under.”
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However, Ms McDonald said she did not support a call from Mr Boyd-Barrett for energy companies to be nationalised.
Macdara Doyle from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said that there was “no silver bullet” to solve the cost of living crisis but added that an increase in the minimum wage of 80c “simply will not cut it.”
Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry told the meeting that Ireland was a “failing state” that had failed to provide access to housing, free education, public healthcare and mental healthcare for its citizens. “It’s the responsibility of the Government to meet the basic needs of its citizens,” he said.
Fr McVerry said that there were “two perspectives on the Irish economy” — the one held by ministers who believe the economy is “extraordinarily successful” and his perspective, which is different.
“I ask myself why would a young person who has completed a third level course or an apprenticeship, why would they stay in Ireland? They’re never going to own a house, they’re going to be living in insecure rented accommodation all their lives, they’re going to be paying an exorbitant amount of their wages to a landlord and whatever’s left is going to have to provide in one of the highest cost of living countries. So why would they stay?”
He said that a “neoliberal ideology” had dominated Government thinking for two decades and had created the housing crisis.
Imelda Browne, President of the Senior Citizens Parliament said that half of older people were completely dependant on the social welfare pension, and were especially hard hit by rise in energy prices. “Many of them are immobile, they spend much longer hours at home, many of them are actually home bound and many of them have illnesses which make heat not a luxury but an absolute necessity,” she said.
Beth Reilly, President of the Union of Students in Ireland, said that students were living in tents, cars and sleeping on couches because they couldn’t find or afford accommodation.
She said that the Government has “washed their hands” of the problem. “They seem to think that digs is a solution to the student accommodation crisis when they know that students who avail of digs have no rental rights and are still being charged absolutely extortionate amounts,” she said.
She said that many students were planning on leaving the country after graduation. “We shouldn’t have to leave to be appreciated,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to leave to get jobs, we shouldn’t have to leave to afford to live. But that is the Ireland we are looking at currently, so that’s why I am calling on all students to join the protest on Saturday to make your voice heard and to make an Ireland that is fit for us to live in.”
The march takes place on Saturday afternoon in Dublin.
