Cost of living

This is Eamon Ryan we.re talking about. Nothing would surprise me

My mother is an OAP. She rang me in floods of tears. She is so afraid that she will not be able to support herself into her old age. She couldn’t afford the retrofitting, loan or no loan. She will basically be punished for not having a higher BER house, and yet she can barely afford to survive as is. It makes no sense. The spiralling costs are hitting those that cannot afford it the most

Take a look here.

this was very insightful!

While the 200 quid off the esb is welcome, its a piss poor package. 20% off public transport is nothing and it doesn't kick in till April!

Nothing for the working man as usual. Energy prices are out of the governments control so I can't lay blame on them but there is plenty they could of made temporary cuts to. Things like we'll knock 10% off motor tax, give 10% back on the student contribution fee if you have kids going to college, tax relief on childcare costs. Something for the masses who get up everyone morning and go to work.

If you sit at home on your hole and live off the state, you have done well out of this.

If you are a CO starting off in the civil service, you start at €25,087. After tax, you will get €1,837. This is bloody insane.

so, imagine you are sharing a room in a house in Dublin. That is €1,000 gone. And then transport, €120 gone. And then food, €400 gone. And then Netflix is another 20. You literally have €300 wiggle room. Or €75 per week. This is your rainy day fund. You need to cloth yourself at some point. And pay phone bills.

Forget health insurance. Forget holidays abroad. Forget eating out. Forget saving for a mortgage. Forget children.

And COs have degrees. There are lots of cleaners, restaurant and retail staff, secretaries in the same bloody position.

I don’t mean to pick one profession. I just wanted to highlight how mad it is.

Increasing the price of living (whether it be for green policy or other) is just not viable for these people

The media would give you the impression that huge numbers are living "hand-to-mouth".

Yet during COVID, regular savings surged.

The problem is that my mother worked all her life, until she reached 66. She doesn’t want welfare. She wants to be independent and be able to live comfortably.

There are so many costs that we don’t even think of. These costs are negligible until you live on the edge. The part of the IT article where that widow mentioned about the price of bread jumping from €2.0 to €2.50 really hit me. If somebody has available funds of €30 per week, a just of 50c on one of the staples is very significant. It means that she probably spends €2.50 extra a week on bread. That is €2.50 less for a very tightly controlled budget.

Sell the house and buy a warm apartment for the proceed.

but wait this is Ireland, daddy government should hand out an A3 rated semi for everyone. Dennis Obrien pays for them all

lol

you obviously occupy the echelons of a cosy upper-middle class background. You have been fortunate enough to be insulated from the difficulties that other folk may face. Heating is bloody expensive. How can you cannot understand this. And if you have barely enough to live, then heating the house for numerous hours in a day is a non-runner

I had an aunt who married well. Her husband was a multi-millionaire. He was so detached from reality. He would regularly profess how easy it was for any child in this country to have a good education. He said that if they didn’t have a good school in their local, they could take the bus to another school elsewhere. His money gave him a distorted view of reality. He was foolish enough to think that he understood complex issues when he had no personal experience. He was very unsympathetic to those that did not have, despite his millions

And to be honest, he would be probably on Boards telling the proles to live within their means and it’s all just bricks and mortar from his **** off McMansion