LAST UPDATE | 18 Jun 2022
SIX PROTESTS IN cities and major towns across Ireland are taking currently place, organised by the Cost of Living Coalition.
Dublin, Belfast, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Sligo are holding protests at various public buildings and main streets.
Several other protests by decentralised local groups are also set to take place across Northern Ireland, including in Derry and Strabane.
#june18 #costoflivingdemo pic.twitter.com/0YVNjxXrMB
— Cost of living coalition (@COLCIreland) June 15, 2022
Dublin’s protest began at 1pm at the Gardens of Remembrance in Parnell Square.
Speakers at the Dublin protest include Fr Peter McVerry, Mary Lou Mc Donald, chief executive of the Senior Citizens Parliament Sue Shaw, Joan Collins, Beth O’Reilly from the Union of Students in Ireland and People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett.
Several hundred people were in attendance.
Huge crowd out in Dublin @COLCIreland pic.twitter.com/F3ORl5x473
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) June 18, 2022
The Government has so far resisted calls for a so-called “mini budget” ahead of the autumn to roll out further measures for families.
However, it has denied allegations that it has been slow to act on the issue, highlighting that the steps it has taken to tackle cost-of-living pressures since last October add up to €2.5 billion.
As the crowd arrived outside Leinster House, chants of “raise our incomes, raise our wages” and “rents are rising, so are we” could be heard.
Addressing the crowd from a platform on Kildare Street, Mary Lou McDonald said that if the government “continue to drag their heels and look the other way, if they continue to allow our people to suffer on,” then protests will continue each weekend.
"If this government is not willing to give people breathing space, let them make way for people who will," says opposition leader @MaryLouMcDonald, calling for an emergency budget.
— Deborah Naylor (@DebsNaylor) June 18, 2022
"We will not give up on change because, god knows, that is precisely what this country needs." pic.twitter.com/MZRvsam8VR
Boyd Barrett called for an increase in people’s wages and pensions to meet the “spiralling cost of living”.
“We will accept nothing less than that,” he told the crowd.
“The vast majority of us here believe it is long time overdue that we get rid of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. They have had 100 years.”
“We need a left government that stands up for workers, pensioners and students and ordinary people.
“Our critical message is to say we are not waiting for a general election, we are not waiting until the budget, we want action now.
He called on every person present to be “the organisers of a mass movement that is going to force this government to protect the rights to housing and protect people’s ability to live.”
Speaking about the protests on RTÉ Radio 1′s Saturday with Katie Hannon, Green Party TD and Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Ossian Smyth said that the government has been providing significant relief.
“It’s clearly a major crisis that’s affecting everybody and some people much more than others and it’s really concentrated on the cost of fuel. And then that’s feeding through now into the cost of food because you have to distribute food with fuel and you have to use fuel to make fertilizer.”
“We have been addressing it and there have been a billion euros of measures since the last budget.”
“The first thing is we cannot completely compensate for all of the increases in fuel.”
When asked further about additional measures on the cost-of-living, Smyth said that there are no plans for additional measures at the moment.
However, he said that if there is a “dramatic change in the situation”, the government’s current position may change.
Dublin march co-ordinator Eddie Conlon said: “Developments in the last two days show that the cost-of-living crisis is deepening, with nearly 30% of households experiencing energy poverty. This will get worse as prices continue to rise.
“The breakdown of the pay talks shows the Government is not prepared to protect incomes from rising inflation. It’s clear that it was not prepared to meet trade union demands that workers’ living standards be protected.
“Urgent action is needed. Next October will be too late for many households as they slide further and further into financial distress.
“The Government needs to get a clear message that urgent action is needed now and the public can deliver it … by turning out in their thousands.”
On Thursday, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said he has not ruled out bringing in additional measures to help cash-strapped households, but said there are no specific plans to do so before budget day.
A report published this week by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that the number of households in energy poverty in Ireland has risen to the highest rate ever recorded.
A person who spends more than a tenth of their net income to heat or power their home is defined as being in energy poverty, with 29% of households falling into this category.
At an event in Dublin on Wednesday to promote the protests, Mary Lou McDonald said that the government was too slow to act on the crisis by not holding a mini-budget.
“The idea that the Government would simply sit on their hands and ask people to wait until October is just unacceptable,” she said.
“If they wait until October, arguably a lot of the measures, whatever they might be, won’t take effect until the new year.”
Boyd Barrett, who is convenor of the Cost of Living Coalition, told the event that the Government needs to take “immediate, urgent and serious action” over cost-of-living pressures.
“People are suffering now and we’re urging them to come out on the streets this Saturday in Dublin and the other locations across the country to put as much pressure as we can on this Government to take urgent and serious measures to address the cost-of-living and the housing crisis, which are causing so much hardship and suffering for people in this country,” he said.
Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the National Homeless and Housing Coalition, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Union of Students in Ireland and several other unions are affiliated with the Cost of Living Coalition.
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