Debate contribution: Cost-of-living Crisis

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 19 October 2026.

MLA: Mr Mark Durkan
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 19 October 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Cost-of-living Crisis
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5795477

Text

I beg to move
I rise to speak on a matter that is not a new item on our agenda or a blip on our economic horizon. The term "cost-of-living crisis" has not slipped from our daily lexicon for the entirety of this mandate, and for some considerable time before that. It has shifted from an economic headline into a permanent, grinding reality for the people whom we all represent.
This is not a highbrow debate about macroeconomic theory or fiscal forecasting; it is about a heavy, suffocating burden that everyday people have been forced to carry on their shoulders. It is felt when bills drop through the letter box; when the oil tank runs dry; and when the weekly food shop costs significantly more despite there being less and less in the trolley. As we sit in the comfort of the Chamber, working parents are recovering from lying awake all night staring at the ceiling and wondering how they will make ends meet, keep the radiators warm, keep a roof over the heads of their children or put food in their bellies. In times of crisis, people look to leadership. Times of crisis test the mettle of those in power. They demand a simple choice from us. Do we have leaders who turn a blind eye and detach themselves from the unsavoury reality on our streets, or do we have leaders who step up? Regrettably, while the Executive have been chronically preoccupied with their internal political arguments and constitutional grandstanding, working families across the North have been left entirely alone to carry the weight of the crisis. We have had plenty of talking shops. We have listened to endless ministerial statements expressing deep, profound concern. We have been promised the delivery of an anti-poverty strategy that has been delayed for a decade and has yet to materialise. Our people have been forced to get used to a level of hardship that should never, under any circumstances, have become normal. It is a damning, shameful indictment of our collective leadership and of the Executive that people in full-time honest employment are forced to rely on food banks to feed their family. Working hard is no longer a guarantee that a family can afford even the basics in life. Let us look at the brutal arithmetic of life in 2026. Food prices rose by a staggering 19·1% in the year to March 2023, the highest annual increase since 1977, and prices have only gone one way since then. We will all have noticed it. That peak has left a devastating legacy. Trussell's data exposes the human terms of that failure: over half a million people across the North are now classified as food-insecure, including 130,000 of our children. One quarter of all children in our society live in poverty. Heating oil prices surged by more than 80% in a single week in March, and by September, the cost of an average 900-litre order had risen above £1,000. For most households, that is more than a minor inconvenience or a budget adjustment. It is simply money that they do not have. The rainy-day funds have gone, the credit union loans have been maxed out and the few pounds borrowed from friends and family have been completely exhausted. A year ago, £50 of diesel would have filled the tank of my trusty old Volkswagen Golf, but today that same £50 barely meets the half-tank mark. Translink has been forced to cut discounts, forcing more people into cars and the costs associated with that. Other Members have raised the cost of insurance. Last week, I had a gentleman in my office whose car insurance had tripled. He had made no claims, he had had no accidents and there were no changes whatsoever in his personal circumstances. He was being penalised simply for living here. Let us focus specifically on the housing market, which has become a trap for our citizens. Rents have risen by 56% over the past decade, yet virtually no protections have been secured for tenants. In my constituency, rent for a modest, basic, two-up two-down terraced house has more than doubled in recent years to £1,000 per month.
I have made many similar points in the Chamber. I agree entirely. It is a multifaceted problem that requires a multi-agency and cross-departmental approach, but we are not seeing that. We have not seen anywhere near enough of that during this mandate. The notion of homeownership is now a pipe dream for young families or young couples, who are saving hard. They save every penny that they have and do everything that previous generations were told would secure them a home, yet they find themselves entirely priced out. When people are priced out of buying or renting privately, the pressure transfers directly onto the social housing sector. The all-time high of 50,000 households currently languishing on the social housing waiting list stands as a permanent testament to the Executive's housing failures. Housing associations want to build, but they are crippled by funding shortfalls and massive infrastructure constraints. There are also regional anomalies, and I have made that point before. It makes no sense whatsoever that the cost of housing in Derry has outstripped the cost of housing in Belfast, which has significantly higher average wages. It is economically nonsensical as well as socially unjust. Instead of cushioning our poorest families, the Executive's policy decisions have actively punished them. Rates have been increased across the board, with absolutely no effort made to cushion the poorest council areas and, therefore, by extension, our poorest families. School meal costs were increased by 20% this year, and that cruel decision was compounded by a flat failure to raise the criteria threshold for school meal and uniform support. A decade ago, the criteria were more generous than they are today, which is utterly absurd in the context of soaring inflation. Because of bad Government decisions, 3,000 fewer children receive school meal support today than did three years ago in 2023. The SDLP has consistently called for a universal school meals programme. Scotland has already proven that universal primary-school provision is entirely possible. A child's access to a hot, healthy meal at school should not depend on their parents navigating a labyrinthine benefits system or falling below an arbitrary income threshold. Universal provision also removes the stigma of poverty from the school canteen.
I will not have time to take another one. Furthermore, our public service workers, who are the very backbone of our society, are being actively penalised by crushing Executive decisions or by Executive indecision. Consider our home care workers, who are spending up to £40 a day on fuel just to travel around the vulnerable people whom they support. Current mileage rates utterly fail to reflect the real-world cost of travel, leaving independent care staff, in particular, severely out of pocket. Carers are leaving roles that they absolutely love and that are absolutely essential, simply because they cannot afford to go to work. You cannot build a sustainable health and social care system on the goodwill of exhausted, broke and broken workers. Look at the bureaucratic nightmare facing our health workers and Education Authority (EA) staff. Thousands of those low-paid workers are in receipt of universal credit, and, when they — if they ever do — get their long-awaited pay rise, which will be backdated, they will see no benefit from it. They are literally left worse off for receiving a raise. Ministers are fully aware of that universal credit trap, yet pleas to fix that technical oversight remain entirely unheeded. Band 2 staff were recently awarded an additional 8p per hour to bring them up to the legal minimum wage, only to be told that that tiny uplift will be completely absorbed and erased by the upcoming standard pay award. Meanwhile, our community and voluntary sectors are tired. They are under unbearable pressure trying to meet the soaring demand in communities, where almost every household could now be classified as vulnerable. They are doing the work of government by protecting the poorest, but they should not have to shoulder that burden alone. They do not just need more charity; they need better political decisions. Where is the strategic —.
I thought that I had an additional minute.
Apologies. I propose the motion.

1,387 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Awaiting analysis

This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification