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

[odyssey06]

To clarify on the arrears... the Independent's Charlie Weston has more details:

Cost of living crisis: 176,000 households are now over 90 days in arrears on their energy bills

Evidence of an energy arrears crisis has emerged, with new figures showing thousands of families are months behind on their electricity bills.
The average amount owed is approaching €500 for people who have gone three months or more without paying their electricity provider.
New figures show that in May, more than 176,000 households were in arrears on their electricity bills for more than 90 days.
This is the highest since records of energy arrears were first collected by the regulator at the start of 2019.

Fears of arrears crisis as record number of families are three months or more behind on energy bills

Evidence of an energy arrears crisis has emerged, with new figures showing thousands of families are months behind on their electricity bills.

www.independent.ie

 

[Purple]

To clarify on the arrears... the Independent's Charlie Weston has more details:

Cost of living crisis: 176,000 households are now over 90 days in arrears on their energy bills

Even though welfare rates and wages are increasing faster than inflation. Strange.

 

[Protocol]

Elec prices here are very, very high, by far the highest in the EU (pre-tax).

Our tax on elec is low compared to other countries, as we have no excise duty on elec (or very little).

Even so, our after tax price is still the highest.





There seems no efforts by Govt to reduce these prices.

I see no explanation why our prices are higher than in DK.

DK = under 20 cent.

IE = nearly 40 cent

 

[joe sod]

Inflation at its highest level since February 2024

Inflation is at its highest level since February 2024, after growing by 3.2pc in the year to last month.

www.independent.ie

Irish inflation at its highest level since February 2024 and I think now among the highest in EU. Already having among the highest prices in the block combined with high inflation again is not good.

The government is going to have to reduce excise and taxes on fuel if they are not going to do stop adding more carbon taxes. Already the extra taxes on Irish fuel vis a vis our neighbouring countries is starting to really show. Anecdotally I believe there is a 20c difference between fuel prices in the north compared to here. How long can we keep this up, it is contributing significantly to our inflation rates Already.
The government by their policies are contributing most to our high inflation rates.

Another thing I notice is that the CSO is not reporting the actual fuel prices properly, for example a few weeks ago they were reporting diesel prices at 1.70 a L when every fuel station I saw even the cheapest ones had diesel at 1.74 to 1.82 a L. There is definitely something up with how they are gathering their pricing data?

 

[JoeRoberts]

People will blame the Eu but our carbon taxes are way above what the Eu requires them to be.

 

[Nivarg]

Who is paying 40c per unit of electricity? After standing charges and so on, my electricity cost under 19c on average on my last bill. The undiscounted peak rate is still only 37c between 5 and 7pm.

 

[Savvy]

Who is paying 40c per unit of electricity? After standing charges and so on, my electricity cost under 19c on average on my last bill. The undiscounted peak rate is still only 37c between 5 and 7pm.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm on a more expensive tariff in the last two weeks, but our all in rate is about 25c.

Edit: Actually just looked at Eurostat and the default dataset is based on users with usage of up to 1000kWh, so the Standing Charge has far more of an impact on the kWh rate.
Even so looking at those with usage in 5-15k kWh bracket Ireland was the highest in 2023 (33.91c) and 2024 (26.23c).
The next highest is 35.12c (Netherlands in 2023) and 18.81c (Austria in 2024).

 

[ClubMan]

Consumer Price Index September 2026 - Central Statistics Office

www.cso.ie

Consumer prices rose by 4.1% in the 12 months to September 2026​

 

[joe sod]

4.1% is actually ok, imagine where they would be if they hadn't reduced the excise duties on fuel, diesel would be up at 2.50euros a litre now. All the left wing academics dismissed that factor aswell back in april, bonkers.

 

[Victor Carrera]

I have not seen any increase in my groceries bill over the last year. My debit card app segregates all purchases by type and returns a monthly total which fluctuates very little over the 12 months.

 

[Pawel Nowak]

have not seen any increase in my groceries bill over the last year

Maybe you're buying less? Otherwise I would be surprised by your statement as some food categories went up significantly for example eggs and meat.

 

[Sarah Ryan]

eggs and meat.

Depends where you are getting them? We buy direct from a farmer so we have decent price.

I can't say my shopping bills have increased that much either if I'm honest, some weeks you are just going to have that big shopping (€80 ish) where you need to stock up on things and then other weeks I can do a week's shop for the two of us for less than €50 depending on what I'm cooking.

If you don't have children things are just a lot easier, some of my friends could be spending up to nearly €250 a week on groceries.

 

[Victor Carrera]

Maybe you're buying less?

No, otherwise my weighing scale and fitbit app would show it. There are however two aisles in my local Aldi that I don't go into. One contains alcohol products and the other seems to contain sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, fizzy drinks etc. There might be an answer in there somewhere.

 

[Victor Carrera]

I can do a week's shop for the two of us for less than €50 depending on what I'm cooking.

Thats exceptional. and well done on providing some empirical values which is sadly lacking on this subject in the media. I find the monthly calculation less fluctuating because of the possibility of non perishable overflow from one week to the next.
FWIW here are some more actual values for a daily average 3000 calorie burn.
For a €200 per month spend on some of the most nutritious foods you can eat.
EG: 3L Irish Milk 3.25, 1Kg Potatoes 1.50 often 1.00 or less on special or larger quantities, 100g Irish Mince Beef/Pork/Turkey ~1.10, 7 funsize bananas = 1.95. 1Kg frozen mixed veg = 0.99. IKg frozen white fish fillets = 5.99. 6 large eggs = 1.95. Bag of 10 apples 1.59. 160 tea bags so cheap and insignificant I can't remember. and much more.
3L filtered tap water/day = €5/filter every two months.

 

[Sarah Ryan]

One contains alcohol products and the other seems to contain sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, fizzy drinks etc. There might be an answer in there somewhere.

Same, zero alcohol, zero fizzy drinks but do love a foxes glacier mint!

Batch cooking is the key to keeping costs down, I used to be a fan of the ready-made meals in my local supervalue, decent meat 2 veg meals but the price of them has gone up to nearly €9 a meal.

For about €12 you could be making a lasagna with six portions. Our food bill would be very much dependent on my husband's shift, when he is not around in the evening time I'm very happy with soup and sandwich etc.

 

[Victor Carrera]

Batch cooking is the key to keeping costs down

I agree, and it also saves on time and gas or electricity costs.

 

[Pawel Nowak]

If you don't have children things are just a lot easier, some of my friends could be spending up to nearly €250 a week on groceries

We're in a similar predicament ourselves and although we do shop around, stay away from processed food/alcohol we still spend a little fortune. My children are certainly on a never ending growth spurt.