MESL 2025 Annual Update
Issued: June 2025
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- MESL 2025 - (size : 958k)
- MESL 2025 Appendix Tables - (size : 1250k)
- MESL 2025 - Presentation - (size : 1763k)
Summary
The MESL offers a publicly determined benchmark for household minimum needs, providing a needs-based indicator of the income required for individuals and households to live with dignity.
The annual MESL series captures changes in the cost of the minimum basket of goods and services needed for households in Ireland each year.
The 2025 MESL report presents an overview of the findings from the project to review the MESL baskets for households with children.
For households without children, the 2025 figures are an inflation adjusted estimate of current costs.
The MESL provides an evidence-based indicator of the current cost of the goods and services required to enable a socially acceptable minimum standard of living. In this way, the MESL expenditure data serves as a benchmark to assess the adequacy of social welfare supports and the national minimum wage.