Hundreds of people took to the streets in Ireland today to protest against the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Over 20 local protests took place around the country on Saturday with over 500 people joining the protest in Cork city.
Protesters in Cork gathered on Grand Parade this afternoon before marching to the GPO where they staged a brief sit-down protest and then continued to City Hall.
The aim of the demonstrations was to send a message to the Government about soaring costs facing the population especially gas and electricity prices, the housing crisis, and rising food prices.
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They chanted: "Freeze prices, not people!" and "Micheal in your ivory tower, this is called people power!"
Caitriona Twomey from Cork Penny Dinners spoke at the rally in Cork where she said their volunteers feed 1,000 people in Cork city daily - and that number is growing at a rapid rate.
She told the crowd: "We fed over 1,000 people today in Penny Dinners and we did the same yesterday, and the same the day before and our numbers are growing every day.
"It is out of necessity that the people are coming to us, they have to come to us to survive."
However, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the Government had already made a record intervention in Budget 2023 with billions of euros of cost-of-living supports in place.
Speaking to reporters in Cork, where he was opening a new stroke unit at Cork University Hospital, he said: "We have intervened with an unprecedented budget and an unprecedented cost of living package of over €11 billion - that is if you combine the budget with the cost of living package.
"These are very substantial interventions on top of the interventions that were made earlier in the year. There has also been a range of payments now that have issued to people in terms of social protection and energy credits.
"There was also a reduction of costs in the budget in terms of medical costs, school costs, education costs, third level fees being dramatically reduced.
"If you add it all up, cumulatively it is a very significant intervention by Government to contribute to alleviating the pressures on people during what is a very difficult wartime situation where we have an escalating energy crisis, cost of living increases across the board have been acknowledged."
Other protests also took place in towns in Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Wicklow and Tipperary.
The protests were organised by the Cost-of-Living coalition, which is made up of political organisations including Sinn Féin and People Before Profit as well as students, activists unions and trade unions.
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