Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

For many people living across the length and breadth of the country, this budget has been quite disappointing. It is a disappointment for workers that they see no tax relief whatsoever, except for a very elite few who happen to be building apartments in Dublin that nobody can afford. They seem to be the only people who have been looked after from a taxation point of view. The agricultural sector and farmers in general are also very disappointed. The Minister will probably be aware of that from media reports from the various farm organisations that expressed their disappointment.

The TB eradication programme obviously needs to be funded. There have been decades when it has not been funded properly. We see a situation where the bovine TB numbers have been out of control for the past number of years. The TB programme has gone over budget every year since 2020 and it will run over budget again this year. In 2024, over €100 million was spent and estimates are that it could be up to €130 million. We all know that, yet when we ask the Department of public expenditure and reform - our office put in a question to it - about the eradication programme the Minister has now proposed to bring forward, we are told it will cost up to €181.7 million, yet the budget falls well short of that.

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