Finances mean choosing between food and medicine

People on zero-hour contracts or similar work situations are so financially precarious some are avoiding going to the doctor or delaying having children.

A conference on precarious employment organised by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) heard that one interviewee in a research project said money was so tight it was a choice between food or an inhaler for asthma, while another person said they had stopped attending their GP for the contraceptive pill because they wanted to save the €60 doctor’s fee.

Dr Sinead Pembroke of the independent thinktank for Action on Social Change (TASC) interviewed 40 people aged 18 to 45 living in Ireland who were employed, or had been employed on an if-and-when zero-hour basis, on a fixed term contract, or was self-employed.