Pregnant women in Cork fear not being able to afford necessities for their babies

EXPECTANT mothers in Cork are finding it difficult to look forward to the arrival of their babies due to fears about the cost, a Cork volunteer has said. 

It comes as new figures show that the price of infant formula has increased by 6% in a year.

The Minimal Essential Standard of Living (MESL) report, prepared by the Vincentian MESL Research Centre at the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP), was published today.

The report details the cost of essential goods and services that are needed for a minimum acceptable standard of living.

Infant needs in general have increased dramatically by 22.4% from 2020 to 2024, driven by substantial rises in the costs of baby milk formula and nappies.

“Infant formula outpriced itself over the last couple of years, it’s gotten so expensive that we hear from people who are pregnant and instead of looking forward to their babies they’re worried about the cost, it’s about forty euro a week and that scares a lot of people," said Caitríona Twomey, volunteer co-ordinator of Cork Penny Dinners. 

Over the past year, general MESL costs have shown a moderate decline, decreasing by an average of 1.9% from March 2023 to March 2024, but, from 2020 to 2024, there has been a cumulative increase of 16.8%.

In 2024, 76% of test cases have an inadequate income when reliant on social welfare.

The adequacy of the National Minimum Wage also remains a concern - for urban single adults in full-time minimum wage employment, income shortfall is €130 weekly in 2024.

Supplemental payments and supports helped with the exceptional rise in living costs the report explained, adding that without these supports, income inadequacy would have affected 80% of cases.

Ms Twomey said that the figures were unsurprising.

“It’s the kind of thing we’d hear when people are coming in for help, they say they just can’t make ends meet.

“People have to eat, people have to heat their homes – they’re not luxuries, they’re necessities."

Discussing the role played by one-off payments in this year’s modest improvements, Ms Twomey said that permanent measures would be preferred in this year’s budget.

“While they did have an impact, a long-term package would serve people better – the one-off measures help a little but they don’t address the root cause of the issues."