'The cost of food on the shelves is just ridiculous' - TD
Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan has said that the latest data on food prices published yesterday (September 1) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is a "frightening insight into the crippling financial burden that hundreds of thousands of families are now facing on a daily basis".
Yesterday, the CSO released data that estimated food prices have risen by 0.4% in the last month (August 2025), and by 5.0% in the last 12 months.
The data also estimated that the EU's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Ireland increased by 1.8% in the 12 months to August 2025, and has risen by 0.3% since July 2025.
This compares with HICP inflation of 1.6% in Ireland in the 12 months to July 2025, and an annual increase of 2.0% in the HICP for the Eurozone in the same period.
Deputy Nolan said: "It is now absolutely clear that the price of food is simply becoming unsustainable for far too many families.
"This has gone beyond cutting back on certain items; it is now a full-blown crisis that government must respond too with unrelenting determination, especially around the energy cost side of things which we know is what is driving a lot of these increases.
"We also must avoid scapegoating farmers and food producers who for too long have been on the receiving end of price manipulation and cartel like monopoly behaviour from the factories," the TD added.
Following the release of the data from the CSO, the Co. Offaly TD believes that the levels of increase "cannot go on".
Deputy Nolan said: "The cost of food on the shelves is just ridiculous. Something has to give before families and children and those on fixed low incomes such as pensioners or carers are driven to new depths of food poverty and food insecurity."
Separately, Independent Ireland TD Ken O'Flynn has demanded urgent action from the government following the release of the CSO data.
He said: “Families have been sounding the alarm for months. Now the official figures confirm what everyone at the tills already knows, the basics are becoming unaffordable.
"Butter, cheese, bread, these are not luxuries, they are staples of the Irish home. Yet prices have soared, while wages stand still.
"People are paying more and getting less. Families are cutting back, not on luxuries, but on the essentials. That is not sustainable for households or for the wider economy," Deputy O'Flynn added.
