Pearse Doherty: Budget 2025 another example of government incapable of delivering real change
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been exposed as serial wasters, treating the public with contempt with how your money is spent, writes Pearse Doherty
This budget is another example of a government incapable of delivering real change and unable of delivering value for money.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been exposed as serial wasters, treating the public with contempt with how your money is spent. The €2.2 billion Children's Hospital, the €336,000 bike shed, the €1.4 million security hut, and forking out €442,000 on modular homes that were supposed to cost €200,000. The list goes on.
Most inexplicably, spending €10 million of your money for a warchest in an attempt to deny this state the €14 billion Apple Tax money it was due. But the question many of you will be asking today is whether this budget will make the big difference that so many of you have been crying out for?
READ MORE: Budget 2025: Timeline and key dates to remember for all new cost of living measures
Will it address the housing crisis, will it fix the health service, will it tackle the cost of living in a meaningful way or will it deliver fundamental change to our childcare system? The answer to all of those questions is no. This budget fails on housing, fails on health, fails on childcare, and fails carers and people with disabilities.
This is a government that has all the resources but is incapable and unwilling to deliver the change that is required. I’ve heard this budget described as a giveaway budget. Let’s be very clear, it’s not. It is a giving-up-on-housing budget, with the same inadequate social and affordable housing targets as before.
That is despite the fact that since this government came into office, the average price of a home in Dublin has increased by €100,000 while home ownership has collapsed. There are 100,000 fewer people under the age of 40 that own a home today than when Fine Gael came to power.
Instead, Fine Gael has more than doubled the number of people renting into their 60s, while at the same time the number of people renting in their 20s has collapsed. Why? Because they are trapped in their parents’ box rooms or are jumping on planes to Perth, Boston or Vancouver.
In Sinn Féin’s alternative budget, we set out a real alternative for our people. An alternative with hope, ambition and delivery at its core, that would turn the page on all of these crises. We outlined how we would make housing affordable, delivering 300,000 public and private homes over five years - homes that are secure and affordable. We set out how we would fundamentally change our childcare system by introducing childcare at €10 a day per child, which would be a game-changer for families.
Crucially, our alternative budget was an action plan to tackle the cost of living, one that gives workers and families a break and puts money back into people’s pockets. That includes the abolition of the USC on the first €45,000 of income for all workers, which would benefit every worker, with USC removed from all or most of their income.
We also introduced the most substantial package of supports ever presented for carers in a single budget, increasing the thresholds for carers from €900 to €1,460 for a couple, and we have committed to abolishing the unfair means test for carers in government. In contrast, the government’s budget does little more than paper over the cracks, with workers worse off in real terms than when this government came to power.
This is a government out of time and out of ideas. Everyday, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain in office, we are squandering valuable time, and squandering valuable resources.
When the general election is called, there will be a choice to make. A choice between those repeated failures of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, or a new government that will roll-up its sleeves and get down to work, delivering real solutions and a better life for ordinary people.
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