Living in Ireland is hitting us in the pocket as the cost of electricity, gas, eating out and alcohol rises.
Household bills have risen sharply compared to last year, official new figures show.
Higher rent and electricity bills, along with gas and other fuel costs are up 4.7%.
Dermott Jewell of Consumers’ Association of Ireland said: “The increases are quite significant. “When it comes to certainly energy costs, electricity, gas and fuel it is a significantly high increase.
“There is very, very little that they can do except reign in on their usage or consider switching.
"And both options pose a challenge because across the board prices increased in energy, and gas and other fuels, and that makes it a challenge.”
He advised consumers to consider switching to help tackle the rising costs. Mr Jewell added: “Now it’s easy for consumers because they only have to go to a comparison website and you have no compulsion to change but I can’t help but feel that it might bring some semblance of understanding to the consumer that they actually do have some small level of control in how they might be able to reduce a challenge like this.”
Eating out has also become more expensive, seeing an increase of 3.7%.
This is being blamed on food outlets raising prices after VAT on the hospitality sector returned to the old 13.5% rate from 9% at the beginning of the year.
Speaking about the increase in restaurant prices, he said: “I think most consumers will acknowledge that the costs of eating out at any level be it purchasing a cup of tea or coffee and moving upwards, prices have been a fairly steep increase.
“Obviously they went down very significantly when we had the financial crisis, but now they’v e escalated quite significantly, and it’s a cause for concern.”
Hotel rooms also soared in price.
Booze and tobacco has also gone up by 2.4%, the CSO’s consumer price index for April 2019 revealed on Thursday.
Rising airfares and higher prices for diesel, petrol and motor cars has resulted in transport costs going up 3.7%.
Prices on average were 1.7% higher in April compared to the same month last year. Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy spent €36,000 of public money on Paddy's Day trips to Asia and South America
Meanwhile, prices for furnishings, household equipment and routine home maintenance fell by 3.6% thanks to the lowering prices of furniture, household goods and textiles.
A decrease in the cost of phones contributed to a 3.3% drop in communications prices.
Clothing and footwear was down by 1.1% and miscellaneous goods and services went down by 1%.
