Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Instead of investing in long-term sustainable supports in the budget, the Government splashed cash on temporary measures. Today we learned the dates that those ten payments will be made. Most of them will be made before 22 November and the remainder will be made by early December. The Government parties are cock-a-hoop with that schedule because it is right around when most of us expect to be going to the polls. Their glee will be short-lived because bribery is a bad look. Has there ever been a more blatant attempt to buy an election? While these payments will certainly be welcome, they will not last very long, and by the new year, they will be long gone.

What supports will be available to people as prices continue to rise? Very few. That is why the analysis of the budget by the ESRI was so scathing. It stated the budget will push older and disabled people into poverty. I doubt we will see that damning verdict on any Fine Gael election posters but it is the reality. The ESRI has also stated the Government's budget will not reduce the child poverty rate, despite the Taoiseach and his predecessor stating this was a priority.

We all know that, for this Government, talk is cheap. The truth is other priorities took precedence, namely, spraying money around indiscriminately in the hope of buying an election. Where was the vision in this budget? Where was the ambition to fix the really big problems we are facing as a country? The Government had a record surplus at its disposal and all it managed to do was to tinker around the edges. Where was the plan to deliver thousands of affordable homes or a public model of childcare that is accessible and affordable for parents? Where are the quality disability services that children can access when they need them? The Government did nothing to tackle the huge waiting lists in our health service. All of that was absent. The failure to target resources and spend money wisely is why people are so outraged by the €9 million for phone pouches. It has become a lightning rod for public anger because it is emblematic of this Government's default approach of spin over substance. The Taoiseach says that he cares about mental health and yet he has provided almost four times as much money for phone pouches than for additional staffing for child and adolescent mental health teams.

Does the Taoiseach agree with the ESRI that vulnerable people will be worse off because of the budget? How can he defend a budget that lacked any real ambition to make lasting improvements to the country?

See this speech in context