Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This budget comes at a time when our people are struggling with the most serious cost-of-living crisis in 40 years. The challenges households face are reminiscent of those that people faced in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Families find it very hard to make it to the end of the week. Soaring energy bills and motor fuel costs, extortionate rents and sharp increases in the price of food have combined to create a perfect storm for workers and families. It is true to say that even having a full-time job does not allow workers to meet the cost of getting by or prevent a slide towards poverty.

Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine has added fuel to the fire, but it must be said that it is the responsibility of Government to shield people here from the sharpest edges of the crisis. For the past 18 months, this Government refused and failed to come up to the mark in that regard. Everyone understands that the Government cannot do everything, but it could have done more. There is no doubt that the decisions and choices made by the Government have made things even harder for households dealing with the biggest squeeze on income for 40 years.

The cost-of-living shock has served to compound the real-life problems brought on by a generation-defining crisis in housing and by a healthcare system that is persistently overcrowded, under-resourced and creaking at the seams. In Ireland today, the very basics of a dignified life are denied to so many people, including a roof over their heads that is secure and affordable, access to hospital when they need treatment and the right to retire from work at 65 with a fair pension if they wish. Now, working parents worry that they will not be able to put food on the table for their children. All of this is a result of bad policies implemented by successive Governments that have refused to put workers and families first.

This budget represented a real opportunity for Government to turn away from those bad policies. This should and could have been a watershed budget and a budget to turn the tide. The quantum of money available provided a chance to make better choices that would have made a real difference in the lives of workers and families. There is no doubt that the Government has huge financial resources, but the reality is that this budget does not invest those resources in the right way. It could and should have been a budget prioritising those on low and middle incomes and the generation of young people locked out of opportunity. It could have been a budget that really tackled the cost-of-living crisis and that provided households with help and certainty to get through the winter. It could have been a budget that builds for the future by kick-starting the delivery of the housing and healthcare that is needed. That is the type of budget that Sinn Féin would have delivered yesterday.

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