A hard-pressed family is using a prepaid card to pay for gas for their home and are now only getting three days’ worth of heating and hot water compared to seven just a few months ago.
Mark Dawnay, 47, from Blanchardstown, is paying for gas through a prepaid card as it is a way to ensure that you aren’t cut off by your utility if you can’t afford your bill.
But it is also an inconvenience and it means that you will have to go without gas if your credit runs out.
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The hard-working father gets no welfare supports from the State and he has grown cynical of the Government since the cost of living crisis really hit home.
He said: “Politicians are saying they can’t do anything, but of course they can, they just won’t. And I always seem to be just above any limits they set to qualify for any help. I pay all my taxes just like everybody else.”
Mr Dawnay works for the G4S security company - working as many shifts as he can get at the moment - and earns a very modest wage to raise his family on. His wife Debbie is an unpaid carer for her mother and the couple have three teenage children, Michaela, 13, Conor, 15, and Caoimhe, 18.
Mr Dawnay told the Irish Mirror that the family used to enjoy a trip to the cinema together “once in a blue moon,” but that is now out. He liked bringing the kids to the cinema when he could afford it because “they’d missed a lot as kids during the pandemic.
“My daughter didn’t get to go to her Debs, that’s something she’s never going to get back.” He also said that the “treat” of a takeaway they would enjoy once a week has been sidelined too, although he hopes to make the meal a once a month event over the summer.
And the family man is already dreading the ‘back to school’ costs coming down the line, which this year will include having to shell out €75 each for special new uniformed tracksuits.
Mr Dawnay said: “It’s the little things we can’t afford anymore that really grate. We can’t afford the cinema and the Chinese (takeaway) anymore, everything has gone up in price, or you’re getting less for the same price.
“I’m on a decent wage for the job I’m doing, but we are feeling the bite. The things that affect us the most are… the petrol in the car, because I need it for work and the wife needs it for her bits and pieces, that’s really, really bad.
“The gas, I’m noticing we’d put €20 on the prepaid card last year we’d probably get five, six, seven days out of €20, now we’re lucky to get three or four.
“My electricity, now that’s scandalous, I pay that by bill and I’m due a bill next week and I’m not looking forward to it. My electricity used to be always under the €300 mark, it ranged from €220 to €280 depending on the time of the year.
“In January it hit €300 and it hasn’t gone below €300, it was €317, then €350 and I’m expecting it to be close to €400 at this stage. So what I’m doing now is looking at cutting back on other parts where I can.”
Modest savings of just €50 a week have been cancelled in a bid to meet the ever-increasing costs of running the family home. Mr Dawnay spoke about the spectre of rising school costs that will soon hit his wages.
“The school now, the school will come out with another change of uniform, so that’s another bill, then they’re changing this and that and that’s another bill.
“As I said everyone worries about bills, but now the change in uniform, that’s an additional cost on top of everything else. These people are making these decisions, do they not understand the situation we are in?”
He added that his eldest daughter attended a PLC course over the last year, which cost him €1,500 and there was no grant given to her.
Mr Dawnay laughed when we asked if the Government support through the €200 energy rebate had helped with the bills.
He said: “Sure that was gone with the first bill, it was just a stopgap. Their (the Government) tax take has gone up a mile this year…. what annoys me the most is that they’re sitting there talking about percentages, about eight per cent, nine per cent, we couldn’t care less about that.
“People like myself and yourself and others who are working fulltime, we don’t care about eight, or nine, or ten percent, tell me how this is going to affect me in the long run, because they’re not doing that. And they’re not listening to the people, to the real people.”
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