Rip-off merchants lighten mother-of-three’s purse

DUBLIN housewife Kirsi Hanafin did not need yesterday’s Consumer Price Index for July to confirm the fact that prices for everyday goods and services have risen steadily.

The mother of three children has the evidence of a lighter purse to show that the cost of food and drink and essential services such as education, housing and medical care has soared.

Originally from Finland, the irony is not lost on Kirsi that her birthplace and adopted homeland are now the two most expensive countries in which to live in Europe.