The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

ALMOST one-in-five people living in Ireland said they are struggling to make ends meet while seven-out-of-ten have money worries on their mind.

This is according to figures released by the Irish Financial Regulator which also found that almost one-in-four people (23 per cent) believe their biggest concern for the year ahead is to sort out their finances, coming in ahead of getting fit (16 per cent) and giving up smoking (7 per cent).

A spokesman for the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) said there is a lot of worry out there at the moment.

He said: “Being in financial difficulty is a lonely place to be as people can’t really talk about it to anybody, even their best friend.”

He added that the influence of the global credit crunch can be seen in Ireland as people had been enjoying years of credit at request which is

no longer there.

“It’s a time of the year for people to take stock and it’s good to make out a simple budget to manage your finances.

“Christmas is traditionally a time when people tend to dip into savings they had set aside or even borrow to make ends meet and this doesn’t solve anything.”

The Financial Regulator survey, which was conducted among 522 people in Ireland aged over 16 at the end of last year found that money worries are on 6 per cent of people’s minds all of the time, 11 per cent said a lot of the time while 53 per cent said some of the time.

Also 17 per cent said they worry about overspending at Christmas and 16 per cent worry about paying off debts.

A further 10 per cent are concerned about not having a pension and 7 per cent worry about not being able to get on the property ladder.

One-in-five said they do not have any or enough savings.

A spokeswoman for the Irish League of Credit Unions said traditionally this would be a busy time for borrowing, as was the period before Christmas.

The latest figures from the CSO show around 800,000 people in Ireland are classed as at risk of poverty while 280,000 of these are classed as living in consistent poverty.