Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

What of the renters of Ireland? Only a few months ago, the Government came forward with a Bill that will put renters on the hook for massive rent hikes, and now it shafts them again. There is no increase in the renters' tax credit, as Fianna Fáil promised, but Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil dug deep to increase the tax break for landlords to €1,000. Little wonder that most of those pushed into the nightmare of homelessness come from the private rental sector. Renters are shafted for the Government to feather the nest of property funds, vultures and big, wealthy investors.

There is no increase in child benefit. Child benefit remains stuck below where it was in 2008, nearly 20 years ago. How in God's name does the Government stand over that? What does it say to parents going out to work every day, doing everything they can to keep the show on the road? It says to them, "Tough, you are on your own."

Broken promise number two is that the Government told workers that it would cut their taxes. However, as it delivers one of the largest tax cut packages in the history of the State, with €2.5 billion in tax cuts, ordinary workers get absolutely nothing, zero. Who does benefit? Developers are in luck. They have won the lotto because the Government is dishing out €250 million in tax cuts for them. Happy days. It is not like turbocharging tax breaks for developers ever caused any problems in the past, is it, Micheál?

We wanted to give workers a fairer deal and the Government should have scrapped USC on the first €40,000 of income for every worker, putting almost €750 back into workers' pockets. Everyone would have got a boost, especially middle and lower income workers. We are certainly a far cry from 2016 and Fine Gael's pledge to scrap the USC, a Fianna Fáil tax. Nine years is a long time in politics. Today, the Government will not even reduce USC for those on and below the average wage, but that is you all over. This budget is anti-worker. There was self-congratulatory backslapping here yesterday and it is completely detached from the reality of people's lives.

Broken promise number three is childcare. Before and during the general election, Simon Harris promised he would make childcare affordable. He pledged that Fine Gael would deliver a pathway to €200 a month childcare within 100 days of Government.

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