You can only tighten your spending to “a certain extent” in a cost of living crisis, a Barnardos’ spokesperson has claimed.

With so much of our attention focused on global issues, for some people it might be easy to forget the cost of living crisis is still ongoing in Ireland.

On Moncrieff, Newstalk report Henry McKean said people are “still struggling” every day, all over Ireland.

According to CSO figures, 3.6% of people are living in consistent poverty and 10.6% of people are at risk of poverty.

Henry spoke to Barnardos’ National Policy Manager Stephen Moffatt, who said families are still struggling “despite Government supports”.

“What we see is families who really, really started to struggle that at the start of the cost of living crisis, unfortunately, they're still really struggling despite Government supports,” he said.

“They're struggling to meet heating costs, they're struggling to provide day-to-day costs for themselves and their children… they're having to cut back time and time again and this is something that's been going on for several years, so it's a real grind for a lot of parents out there.

“Parents are having to balance bills, they're having to pay one bill off [and] keep another bill for another month, they're having to cut back on certain items.

“Parents I spoke to last week, they decided to put off buying their children new coats for a month because they just don't have the income to be able to do that.”

Cost of living crisis, © PA Wire/PA Images

Mr Moffatt said parents are having to be really careful in terms of any larger purchases.

“The disposable income for the families that we support is essentially non-existent,” he said.

“It's really about sort of tightening things as much as possible, but obviously that you can only tighten things to a certain extent.”

Families of all shapes and sizes are struggling, Mr Moffatt commented.

“Families across the board are struggling, families who might have two parents who are working, they might be finding it very difficult,” he said.

“The level of Government supports for them, they might find not as acceptable as they would like.

“They're having to balance whether or not they can pay for their heating bill this month, whether or not they can pay for issues around… you know, one family I spoke to last week, they've not being able to fix their car - two working parents - because they just don't have the income to do so.

“Any sort of larger expense for the families that we're supporting… they just don't have that safety net, they don't have the backup, so they're having to wait longer periods of time to make those bigger purchases and those unexpected purchases.”

Cost of Living crisis, © PA Wire/PA Images

Mr Moffatt said that despite parents trying to keep their children from knowing about their financial troubles – children take in more than you might think.

“Parents are doing their absolute utmost, putting their children first, we see that time and time again, wanting to do the most for their children, and trying to, you know, protect their children as much as possible,” he said.

“But from what we know from working with children for over 60 years, children pick up on what's happening in the households.

“When parents are getting anxious and concerned about finances, children invariably pick that up, whether it's directly from overhearing things or just noticing that their parents are more concerned, maybe slightly less tolerant around certain issues.

“Over time, children are definitely picking that up and unfortunately, that has a knock on impact on their own well-being and their own level thing of anxiety and concern.”

People that Henry met on the street, in many different circumstances, said they are struggling to make ends meet.

Many said they are scraping to get by and hope every week that “nothing else turns up” bill wise.

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Hands of an elderly pensioner holding leather wallet with euro currency money. Image: Alamy