Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

We have heard that housing is a priority, disability is a priority, child poverty is a priority and climate is a priority. They are all priorities until they are not. For this Government today, we have seen that, in fact, big business and protecting its profits are the Government's priority. The headlines in the run-up to this budget were consistent: an end to successive giveaway budgets. There is no election looming, after all. Despite the Social Democrats consistently appealing for investment in services that will outlast the impact of any universal payments, the Government has so disappointingly reverted to type because this is a giveaway budget. It has chosen to give to fast-food outlets and property developers and chosen to let the ordinary man, woman and child continue to struggle.

Faced with a choice of a radical measure to tackle child poverty or dramatically boost the profits of large corporations, for the Minister of State and this Government, it was a no-brainer. It has come down on the side of big business without hesitation. This budget awards multinational companies like McDonald's and Starbucks millions of euro in extra profits while families choosing between eating and heating are denied targeted energy credits. The Government could have lifted 40,000 children out of poverty, targeted energy credits at 800,000 households, abolished the means test for carers, reduced the cost of childcare for families while rolling out a public model, introduced a weekly cost of disability payment, and turbocharged the delivery of affordable housing. Instead, it of course chose to side with vested interests. There is something quite disingenuous about saying one thing and doing another, which is exactly what this Government has done in budget 2026. At election time, it promised the sun, moon and stars. Today, it has delivered nothing, and it will tell us it is our fault. Its words will not pay the bills, and now its actions continue to ignore the problems. What is regrettable is that it chose to ignore countless fully costed, evidence-informed alternatives.

“Ending child poverty is not just the right thing to do, but is essential if we are going to prepare for the future and build the society that we all want to live in.” Those were the words of our Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, speaking in advance of a summit on child poverty, a summit to tell us about the cause and effect of child poverty as if we did not already know. One in five children in this country experiences poverty. Children, in fact, are the most likely cohort in our society to experience poverty in Ireland and despite Simon Harris telling the voters in September 2024 that there was a roadmap to get to a second tier of child benefit payment, we have seen nothing today that will meaningfully address the problem. They say it is a priority for this Government, but they act in the opposite fashion.

We have seen that big business is the Government's priority. If it cared about child poverty, it would have implemented the proposed changes from the many experts who have been saying it, as we know that universal measures have been proven to leave no legacy for anybody. The effects of living in persistent poverty as a child last for life and affect everything from emotional development, mental health and physical well-being to educational attainment. No doubt over the next couple of days we will hear one of the Government's representatives say that the Opposition does not have a monopoly on care for children, and we do not. Right now, however, the Government has the monopoly on power and look what it is choosing to do with that. Small increases in universal payments have coincided with an unacceptable rise in child poverty in recent years. The Government's measures simply do not work. It could have implemented a second tier of child benefit payment. The Minister of State knows it; we know it. The Government even said it wanted to do it but, collectively, it baulked at the last minute. We proposed a costed, evidence-informed solution by investing €770 million to implement a second tier of child benefit payment. The Government could have done this. Today, its announced measures simply will not work.

When it comes to early years education and childcare, this budget is simply an abject failure. The Government has focused on one of the three Cs affecting the childcare sector. It has made a feeble attempt at addressing the issue of capacity with ghost places, which no one will find, but it has ignored the other two, those being, cost and the conditions for workers. Why would the Government abandon one of the most important occupations of the State? Early years education and childcare are an inherent public good - that is non-negotiable - yet the Government ignores the reality of the failures of core funding and watches as providers leave the programme in their droves. It is essential, at a time of budgetary surplus, that it invest in the necessary social infrastructure for families and communities to thrive. If the Government is not doing it now, then it is certainly not going to do it at a time of any sort of fiscal precarity.

On the eve of a general election last year, this Government was awash with promise. The Tánaiste, Simon Harris, said: “I want us to develop a childcare system that works for every parent.” We know that the system does not work now. It is not working for families or providers, and it most certainly is not working for the workers. Once the election result was over, the Tánaiste’s ambition completely dissipated. It simply does not cut it to say that the Government has a five-year term and progress can be measured at the end of that term. As Mr. Fintan O'Toole asked this morning, what is another year to a two-year-old who is starving? At the very least, the Government could today have made a start on the development of a public model of childcare. It could have done this in budget 2026 but ,once again, this Government chose to forget its words. It chose to row back on its commitments and bury its head in the sand when it came to the major issues facing this sector.

The Social Democrats presented the Government with a pathway to achieving a public model of childcare. It begins by ambitiously acquiring all existing and new empty childcare facilities that lay idle in our communities as a vivid reminder of a failed Fine Gael planning policy that asked house builders to manage the future of childcare in Ireland. It commits to taking 20% of the staff wages of those working in the sector in each of the next five years. It would know this if it listened to the families. It does not listen to the providers, it does not listen to the workers and it most certainly does not listen to us. If it did, it would see a clear, ambitious but costed way to make the system work. I appeal to the Minister of State once again. We have seen no financial commitment to a public model of childcare. Maybe the collective agreement is not there yet. The Government should establish a special Oireachtas committee on public childcare. That is where we could really get into the meat and bones of this.

Page 51 of the Government's expenditure report tells a very worrying story to the thousands of children waiting on an assessment of need in this country. It reads: “... legislative changes to the Disability Act will be advanced to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Assessment of Need (AON) process.” That is only in a budget book to show what will be 25,000 families by the end of this year where the Government's priorities lie. At the first opportunity to show advocates like Cara Darmody or the thousands of parents waiting on a date of assessment that it is listening to them, the Government has told us that it is more committed to changing the law than changing the waiting list. That is shameful.

Today was an opportunity for this Government to show its dedication to children and young people and their families. It was an opportunity to fulfil its pre-election promises. I would love to be standing here applauding the Government for meaningful attempts, whether they be in childcare, child poverty or young people's rights. As sure as night turned to day, however, it reverted to its original playbook. It has still managed a giveaway budget. Not to children or hard-pressed working families - of course not - but obviously to big business and vested interests.

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