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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Michelle Cullen

Cost of living - trip to Tesco or Dunnes, night-out, energy bills and everything set to get more expensive in the next month

The rising rate of inflation across Europe has led to many Irish households feeling the pinch when it comes to spending on their weekly and monthly essentials.

People across the country have been making efforts to cut corners and save where possible. But unfortunately, prices look set to increase even further from next month.

Groceries, nights out and energy bills are all expected to see increases from September as the Government prepares to announce a string of supports for middle-income earners in Budget 2023.

READ MORE: Professional Irish declutterer shares odd items uncovered while clearing out homes

In the meantime, here are the price increases you can expect to see from next month.

Grocery shopping

New figures released by the Central Statistics Office have revealed that Irish consumers will be faced with forking out more for dairy products and fish in the coming weeks as wholesale costs sky-rocket.

Wholesale prices are the amount charged to large distributors, not the customer - but the increase will likely be passed on to the customer over the coming weeks.

European Money in a wallet (gettyimages.ie)

Producers were forced to up the price of milk, eggs and cheese by 53 per cent in the past year, while monthly wholesale pricing for fish also shot up by nearly 20 per cent.

Meat also increased by more than 13 per cent between July 2021 and July 2022.

The increasing price of energy has also contributed to the rising costs of these goods due to the need for energy-intensive tasks such as milking, which are essential in the manufacturing process.

Energy

Irish consumers can also expect to see further energy bills increases as demand rises further.

According to CSO figures, electricity costs jumped by more than 86 per cent in 12 months, which has already led to spiralling household power bills.

The Wholesale Price Index for July also found that the cost of electricity went up by more than 86 per cent.

The increases meant that, on average, households are paying €900 more a year for their electricity and €800 more for their gas than at the start of 2021.

The news comes as the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) said it must act fast to secure energy supplies for Ireland for 2023, with households to be told they must pay an extra €26 on average on their annual electricity bills.

The tariff changes will be introduced from October 1 after a two-week public consultation.

The CRU said the network requires €478m to secure supply in 2023, with the additional tariff intended to cover €100m.

It said households would have faced up to a €43 increase in their bills if the other tariff changes were not introduced.

Night-out

The price of a night out in Ireland is set to increase significantly in just over a week as new taxi price hikes come into effect.

From September 1, the cost of a taxi will increase by a whopping 12 per cent.

The National Transport Authority Board approved the increase in June, saying the increase for customers "reflects the increase in operating costs faced by taxi drivers."

This will mark the first climb in price since 2018, when the fare initially rose by around 4.5%

Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority, told RTE's Morning Ireland in April: "If you look back, we haven't actually seen an increase in taxi fares since 2017/2018, so that's five years since there's been any increases on taxi fares.

"That represents about 2.5/3 per cent a year which is reasonable if you think about the increase in the cost of living over those years."

Ms Graham said the increase would also apply to fares at peak times in order to encourage drivers to make themselves available at unsociable hours.

She said: "What we are trying to do then is ensure that we have as many drivers available at the peak times, which is when people are looking for taxis, particularly at night time.

"So we've rebalanced the fares a little bit to ensure that there is more of a payment in the evening periods, in the premium period, to encourage more drivers to be available in those at those times."

She said that the pandemic had also resulted in almost ten per cent of drivers leaving the industry, adding that the National Transport Authority hopes the increased fares would encourage some drivers to return.

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