Ms Susanne Rogers:

This is unfortunately very short term, by nature. None of the decisions we see anywhere across the Government or policy are looking at what Ireland should look like in 2040, 2050 or 2060. We were led to believe that this was going to be a child poverty budget, but apart from the qualified child payment, which was mentioned, there was really nothing in it for low-income families. This is an issue of long-term commitment to public or social housing. That is key. If we are not prepared to put income into people's pockets, we are going to have to reduce the cost of housing, education and transport. The office is really welcome because it is cross-departmental and looking at all of those things, but it has to be long term. To pick up on points made earlier about the budget, it was being framed as a starting point and the first of many, but this is not the first time a Government has done a budget. This is not a starting point. This is not the first of five but another budget that is really only looking at short-term solutions for what are long-term problems.

We would like to see more ambition. Some of the difficult decisions that need to be made about housing, income and social welfare are not going to be popular, but in the long term, these are investments that need to be put in place now in order to reap the benefits. What we see with social protection is if the Department thinks it is making a saving, those costs are just borne somewhere else in the system and we can really see that. There is €2 billion going to the housing assistance payment and rent supplement and €1.7 billion going into emergency accommodation for IPAS. Long-term commitment and long-term thinking are definitely needed.