Sir, – The cost of living has risen significantly over the past few months, so much so that the Government is currently considering a “mini-budget” in order to try to alleviate some of these increases on residents of the State.
These increases are nearly always referred to in terms of the impact that they have on families. However, as I’m sure the forthcoming census will show, there are many residents of the State between the ages of 30 and 65 who are increasingly living in single-person households, with many of the very same costs of living as families. However, this group faces no support in current cost of living measures from the Government, discrimination with regard to income taxation and capital acquisitions tax (inheritance tax) or the fair deal scheme, should they eventually need it.
I would hope that the Government might use this chance to begin paying attention to these residents in the same way they do to other groups of residents in terms of economic outcome rather than punish them for not meeting a “life milestone”, as it were. – Yours, etc,
NIAMH BYRNE,
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Fairview,
Dublin 3.