Unions seek €10m to tackle food poverty

Unions have urged the Government to give €10m to charities and increase the minimum wage, claiming that food poverty affects far more people in some counties than the one in 10 national average.

Research by Mandate and Unite suggests it is a problem for one in nine people in Donegal, Monaghan, and Offaly. It is lowest in the capital and other urban centres or commuter counties like Limerick, Kildare, Cork, and Galway.

“Those suffering food poverty may be lone-parent families; they may be the newly unemployed; they may be pensioners — and they may be people in work struggling to survive on low wages,” said John Douglas, Mandate general secretary and president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.