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About 2,000-3,000 people attended a cost of living protest in Cork city on Saturday with many attendees warning that they face the stark choice of deciding between “heating or eating” this winter.
Friends Annette O’Mahony (62) and Sheila Hegarty (64), who live in Mahon and Dublin Hill in the city, said they are terrified about the uncertainty surrounding rising heating bills this winter.
Annette said the Government is living on “another planet” in suggesting that people “put on extra clothes this winter” in order to stay warm. She said many people would dip into their savings in order to pay their utility bills, but “nobody has savings any more”.
Sheila is on the widow’s pension. She said people like her are “really struggling”.
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“The cost of electricity, fuel, food. If you run a car. [What] I really feel anyway on a State pension is afraid. They are talking tiny increases [for us] in the budget. What will we get? Maybe €5 next year.
“You can’t budget when you don’t know what is coming down the road. People are living hand-to-mouth.
“A lot of elderly people who would have had money have probably given it to youngsters to try and give them a start.”
Donna Alexander from Douglas in Cork city, who is in her mid-30s, said she did everything the right way in life. However, she is struggling to pay her bills
“I am angry. I am working full time. I have done everything the right way. I have gone to college. I pay my taxes. I work hard. Now I feel I am bleeding money just to survive.
“It is everything. It is not just fuel, it is food. It is electricity. It is so unfair. I am sick and tired of seeing the Government basically protect the people who are doing this. Protect the organisations that are causing this instead of doing what they are elected to do which is to serve the public.”
Donna said keeping the house warm is going to be an impossible task this winter.
“It is coming down to the idea of do we heat the house only X amount of days a week. Or do we try to do without unless it gets really cold.
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“Do we just buy a load of candles instead of turning on the lights. It is at that point for me. Not turning on the immersion and washing in cold water in the middle of winter. I am young but there are older people where that will kill them.
“I volunteer for a food-waste charity where basically I collect surplus food once a week and you put the food on the app and it is collected for free. The numbers on that have shot up. It is everyone. It is people with kids. It is older people. It is single people.”
Gerry Miller from Patrick’s Hill in Cork city said he has been paying taxes since 1966 but all the money seems to be doing is “propping up lame duck Governments”.
“The only skill they have is to successfully hoodwink a couple of thousand people to vote for them. And when they go up [the chain] they pull the ladder up after them.”
Edith Busteed (23) from Turner’s Cross in Cork attended the protest with her mother Kate.
Kate is a childcare worker. She said her wages are small in spite of her having a degree.
“My wages are ridiculous. I see my bills soaring. Old [people] do need their heating. Vulnerable people need their heating. If you [are] in a situation of domestic violence how are you supposed to leave.
“It is brilliant to see people rising up. The Government throwing a lump sum at bills isn’t going to do anything.”
Edith, who works with the Socialist Feminist Movement Rosa, said while prices are rising, wages are staying the same.
“The people who are hit the most are those who don’t have a lot. We need to stand up. We can’t take it anymore. There is power in the people. There is multiple problems. You have the housing crisis. People are sick of it all.”
Meanwhile, among the speakers was Socialist Party TD in Cork North Central Mick Barry who said people are tired of the constant struggle to survive in this country.
“We refuse to go hungry or to let others to go hungry. We refuse to freeze our homes this winter. We will not carry a can that is not a crisis or our making.
“Do the Government think that we fail to see the mass profiteering going on around us. Two million euro in profit a day by the ESB. Energy credits are not going to cut it. We want and demand a freeze on price increases.”
Other speakers included Valerie Conlon, former Debenhams shop steward who took part in the historic picket in the city when the firm closed its Irish operations; Antoinette Burke of the Families Unite for Services and Support; and Sinéad Roche of University College Cork Students’ Union.