Politics
Cost-of-living protest: 3,000 turn out for Dublin march
Speakers address lot of low and middle-income workers at demonstration ahead of Tuesday’s Budget
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Attendees at the Cost of Living protest in Dublin on Saturday, 24th September. Picture: Dara MacDómhnaill
Ronan McGreevy
Sat Sep 24 2022 - 18:52
Young people will again be forced to emigrate unless the cost of living crisis is tackled by the Government, a rally has been told.
A crowd of about 3,000 people turned out in Dublin City Centre on Saturday afternoon for a cost-of-living march from Parnell Square to Merrion Square.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald addressed the crowd by stating the Government must ban any rent increases for at least three years.
“Parents now worry if they can put food on the table for children. This is the lot of low and middle-income workers trying to build a life,” she said.
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She said the handing over the Taoiseach’s office from Micheál Martin to Leo Varadker in December is a “joke” when the Government is presiding over a cost of living and housing crisis.
“We need much more than a change of Taoiseach. We need a change of government,” she said, to loud cheers from many of the Sinn Féin supporters in the crowd.
[ Food shopping, rent and bills huge concerns amongst young and old marchers at the Dublin cost-of-living protest ]
She said young people are now facing the prospect of building their future away from Ireland. “We are looking now at forced emigration again in the eye. We can’t afford to lose your talent and potential. You cannot be the next generation forced out. You have to have your chance to make it here. This, after all, is your home. This is where you belong.”
The protest was timed for a few days before Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath publish Budget 2023. The Government has promised generous measures to help individuals and households meet soaring costs and bills, including a once-off cost-of-living package which might run as high as €3 billion.
The demonstration was supported by the main Opposition party, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and also the Socialist Party. Disability organisations, the Senior Citizens parliament and Mica campaigners were also represented there.
Cost of Living Coalition speaker Fr Peter McVerry, with from left; Seamus Dooley ICTU, Mary Lou McDonald, Beth O’Reilly, President USI, and Sophia Mulvany, Access for All. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times
Homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry told the crowd that Ireland is a “failing society that is failing our young people”.
“How would any young person who has completed a course at third level stay in Ireland? They will never own a home. They will pay 40 to 50 per cent of their income to a landlord who can evict them at any time,” he said.
Young people have been told that if they got a good education and got a qualification the government would look after them, he added.
“Now young people know that was a lie. They were scammed by that promise. This country will not look after them.”
Fr McVerry said it is a government’s primary responsibility to make sure that the basic needs of its citizens are met. “Those basic needs are housing and health. They need to be able to heat their home and keep the lights on. They can’t use the excuse that they don’t have the money.
“How can anybody on €100,000 a year understand the pressure on low and middle-income households?”
The names of the three coalition party leaders were booed and the crowd chanted “out, out, out”. Protestors chanting “prices are rising and so are we” and “housing is a right not a privilege” brought traffic and the Luas to a standstill for a period on Saturday afternoon.
Demonstrators at the march in Dublin on Saturday, 24th September. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times
Union of Students of Ireland president Beth O’Reilly said the budget on Tuesday will be “make or break for all of us”.
The cost of living for students by 25 per cent in the last decade and the highest level of grand support only covers half the price of college, she told the crowd.
Their turn to college for the first time in two years as a result of Covid-19 should be a time for joy. Instead students are staying in hostels, in cars and some are couch-surfing. To loud cheers, she added that students need “affordable publicly-funded purpose-built accommodation. We can’t leave the citizens of Ireland at the mercy of landlord greed for another year.”
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said if the Government continues to “prioritise the interests of vulture funds, profit-driven energy companies and rich corporations”, young people’s patience will run out.
Some amount of GAA GEE and Soccer Mom's SUV's parked up around the city while attending the protest.
