'The cost of food on the shelves is just ridiculous'

Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has said the latest data on food prices published today 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.”

Deputy Nolan was speaking after the CSO revealed the estimates of inflation from the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for Ireland for August 2025.

According to the Anthony Dawson, Statistician in the CSO Prices Division, the estimates indicate that prices for consumer goods and services in Ireland have increased by 1.8% in the past year while food prices are estimated to have increased by 0.4% in the last month and by 5.0% in the last 12 months:

“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.”

“These levels of increase cannot go on. 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,” concluded Deputy Nolan.