The Affordable Ireland Campaign has said the government package on energy costs is completely inadequate.<\/p>\n
It has called a protest to demand real action on energy costs.<\/p>\n
It will be held at 5.30pm on Wednesday March 25th at D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann on Kildare Street.<\/p>\n
In a statement the Campaign said;<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government package today is completely inadequate. It will not provide much relief to those in arrears for electricity or the 30% of households who are in fuel poverty. Experts are predicting that electricity bills could rise by \u20ac800 this year. While the extension of the fuel allowance is welcome it will not adequately compensate people who are already struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest benefits have gone to the haulage industry who will benefit from reduced excise rates and also from an enhanced refund scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis stands in stark comparison to the Government\u2019s refusal to meet the demand of disabled people for a \u20ac400 emergency payment to deal with rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clear lesson is that those who are struggling with increased costs must apply real pressure on the Government. We need to up the pressure on the Government for real action on energy costs\u201d<\/p>\n
The Affordable Ireland Campaign is supported by\u00a0Aontas na Mac L\u00e9inn in \u00c9irinn. The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament, Irish Wheelchair Association, Disability Federation of Ireland, Disabled Women Ireland,\u00a0Access for All, Irish Traveller Movement, UCD Students Union, Postgraduate Workers Organisation, Dublin Council of Trade Unions, UNITE, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Sinn F\u00e9in, Social Democrats, People Before Profit, Solidarity: The Socialist Alternative, The Green Party, Labour Party, Muslim Sisters of \u00c9ire, European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland.<\/p>\n
The demands underpinning the campaign are to<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Cut energy costs – energy credits and abolish standing charges.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Reduce and control grocery prices.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Introduce a Living Wage. For Above-Inflation pay, social welfare benefits and pension rises.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Introduce a cost of disability payment. For an emergency winter payment for disabled people and carers.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Freeze and cap rents \u2013 and build public housing.<\/p>\n
6.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Abolish fees for public services – college, childcare, health and GP care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Affordable Ireland Campaign has said the government package on energy costs is completely inadequate. It has called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-363785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}