Social Justice Ireland is urging the government to use Budget 2023 to protect people on low and middle incomes.
As part of its pre-budget submission, the group is calling for more spending on social housing and childcare, and for core social welfare payments to be increased by €20 a week.
The think tank is also calling for more investment in social housing aimed at providing long-term homes to 61,000 households in rented accommodation through HAP tenancies.
Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland, Colette Bennett, says the housing crisis could be solved if the political will was there:
"The budget is all about choices. If the political will is there, these things can get done. We saw what can happen with the political will when we had COVID in terms of income, in terms of health support, and in terms of service provision. This is the type of emergency we are in when it comes to housing and we need a sustained effort by government to push this forward."
