Indo - "There is no cost of living crisis for majority of people in Ireland says IBEC CEO"

ClubMan said:
Took a trip into Dublin city centre for a rare city centre pint last night (on foot from Northside to Southside and back again at closing time) and there was certainly little evidence of any cost of living crisis that I could see...
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You didn't take a taxi, you were just drinking pints (probably not in temple bar or popular music bar), you were not drinking in rounds probably, you didn't go to a restaurant for a meal.
Sure of course you didn't notice any cost of living inflation since you were assiduosly avoiding it. However if you were a tourist visiting Dublin you would immediately notice how expensive it is and consequently our visitor numbers are falling
 
fistophobia said:
Theres no cost of living crisis.. when you are surrounded by people who are doing well in life... and you are not exposed to the realities of daily budgeting and economic hardship.
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And most people are not exposed to the realities of daily budgeting and economic hardship. That's the point that was made in the article that started this thread.
A national cost of living crisis would, in my opinion, have to be affecting a significant proportion of the population. Given that welfare rates have increased faster than inflation and wages have grown faster than inflation and as a demographic pensioners are by far the richest group in society with the highest disposable income I don't think that this is a problem for most people (it's not a crisis unless you are very prone to hyperbole).

I think it's a problem for people paying rent who are on a low income or a modest pension. For some of them it could probably be described as a crisis. I'm sure there are other cohorts for whom it's a real problem but, for example, if you can still afford a foreign holiday then it's not a crisis for you.

It's certainly not a crisis for me and I think it would be a terrible waste of public money to give me a discount on my energy bill or some other tokenistic sweetie to buy my vote.
 
joe sod said:
However if you were a tourist visiting Dublin you would immediately notice how expensive it is and consequently our visitor numbers are falling
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Any time I'm in Spain or Portugal and I have the misfortune to end up in a place with lots of Irish Bars and the general tacky trashy vista which attracts so many of Ireland and Britain's holidaying detritus I am very thankful that we are an expensive tourist destination. We should be pricing out Hen and Stag parties and the people who bring their teabags with them on holidays.
 
ClubMan said:
I meant observing the packed pubs and restaurants and even queues for certain places as I was in transit.
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I'm in Dublin City Centre a few times a month. It's nearly always busy. I love the buzz and energy and general multiculturalism of the place. I'm in my 50's and I've never been robbed or mugged or attacked while out in Dublin.
 
I think that's more to do with so many people wanting the State to be their Mammy and to infantilize them so that they don't have to look after themselves, take responsibility for themselves and generally by adults. I find that such a trait is not dependent on age.
 
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The problem is, when you are working just to pay bills.
I always worked on the basis of "Pay yourself first".

Whether its lower-paid workers, or the squeezed-middle.... if I was back working, I would question whether its worth working at all.
 

Exactly.

And how dare the State write to a selected subset of wealthy, two-pension OAPs and gently suggest to them that they might want to check their annual income to see if they need to file a tax return! Outrageous - and Joe Duffy retired so they can't ring him up and complain!
 
ClubMan said:
Took a trip into Dublin city centre for a rare city centre pint last night (on foot from Northside to Southside and back again at closing time) and there was certainly little evidence of any cost of living crisis that I could see...
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Consider those place are probably not the natural habitat of people struggling with living costs.

Couldn't find anyone buying a Casio in the Rolex store etc.
 
Purple said:
I'm in Dublin City Centre a few times a month. It's nearly always busy. I love the buzz and energy and general multiculturalism of the place. I'm in my 50's and I've never been robbed or mugged or attacked while out in Dublin.
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I've no idea why you replied to my post with this non sequitur? I never criticised anything about the city centre atmosphere or personal safety...
 
fistophobia said:
The problem is, when you are working just to pay bills.
I always worked on the basis of "Pay yourself first".
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I always pay my bills first. If I enter into a contract then I consider myself morally bound not to break it.
fistophobia said:
Whether its lower-paid workers, or the squeezed-middle.... if I was back working, I would question whether its worth working at all.
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I bet many a person wandering around a Farmers market this weekend with their hemp bag and Lulumelon leggings will, between sips from their Oat Milk Latté. will talk about how difficult things are and how they are in midst of a cost of living crisis.

What's squeezing the squeezed middle though, isn't that the question?
It's not that they are getting nothing for their taxes. In fact they get way more from the exchequer than they contribute. That's especially the case if they have children.
They are, by international standards, under taxed and they enjoy very high levels of social transfers including the €7,000 to €8,000 the State spends each year educating their children, their almost free healthcare and goodies like Child benefit.

Are the squeezed middle really just young couples with childcare costs and large mortgage repayments or larger rents to pay? Is everyone else just jumping on the bandwagon?
 
ClubMan said:
I've no idea why you replied to my post with this non sequitur? I never criticised anything about the city centre atmosphere or personal safety...
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I didn't say you did. I was just offering my experience of being in town and agreeing that it is busy with no signs of any cost of living crisis.
 
This dismissal of the squeezed middle is for me a question of accounting perspective. It's either comparing it to someone who pays more taxes net, but in reality has no hardship from those taxes or someone with very low income who has more hardship than a middle earner.

Or is an accounting exercise in that middle earners on paper not the most taxed or least paid or least disposable income.

Personally I think the prices in Dublin are eye watering. I saw a €9.90 sausage roll the other day.
 
I went to a couple of hotels in Dublin this year, price wise they were definitely not more expensive than hotels in any other capitals. I have booked a couple of places over the summer and once again, nothing more than I would expect.
 
Cervelo said:
According to this guy, the Casio is probably a better buy than a Rolex??
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A budget focused channel promoting budget watches.

I remember when you used to get digital watches free with petrol tokens in petrol stations. Now they are vintage and collectible or retro re-editions.

Also unless it's a fitness watch most people under 35 don't wear watches.
 
Premos said:
I went to a couple of hotels in Dublin this year, price wise they were definitely not more expensive than hotels in any other capital
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Not sure the data agrees with you...

"...Restaurant and hotel prices are the second highest in the EU, behind only Denmark and 29 per cent above average,..."

Ireland is second most expensive country in EU, data shows

Alcohol and tobacco are most expensive in Europe, while food prices are third-highest
www.irishtimes.com
 
As I said, not my experience, particularly in terms of capitals. What I noticed though is that in a lot of countries, you can find bargain/extremely low prices in the low season, it's not something that is so much available in Ireland.
 
ClubMan said:
Took a trip into Dublin city centre for a rare city centre pint last night (on foot from Northside to Southside and back again at closing time) and there was certainly little evidence of any cost of living crisis that I could see...
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Well, there wouldn't be, since people experiencing a cost of living crisis aren't out hitting the clubs night after night. You don't find evidence of hardship by only looking at the people who are spending money.

Evidence suggesting that some people have plenty of money to spend doesn't negate the idea that other people are experiencing cost-of-living pressures, or that the number of people experiencing cost-of-living pressures is going up, or that the cost-of-living pressures they are experiencing are becoming more severe.
 
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