Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Before I begin, I want to mention the developments overnight which have raised the prospects of a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. I hope for a peace that is lasting and brings justice and freedom to the Palestinian people.

Tá stampa Fhine Gael ar gach leathanach den bhuiséad seo a bhí foilsithe Dé Máirt, buiséad a thréigeann daoine atá ag obair chun aire a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá ar an bharr. Cuireann briseadh na ngealltanas mór a rinne an Tánaiste ó thaobh cáin ioncaim, táillí mac léinn agus cúram leanaí é seo i gcuimhne dúinn. Some 48 hours have passed since the introduction of the budget. I hope that the real shock and anger of working people and families is starting to register with the Government. They have spent the past two days shaking their heads in disbelief at what the Government served up on Tuesday. It was a budget that abandoned workers in order to look after those at the top. This budget has Fine Gael's stamp on every page. It is a budget that shows up for developers, landlords and investors, but leaves workers behind. It is as though the Government sat down before the budget and asked, "How many of these election promises we made can we break in this budget?" That is what it did.

I want to address some of the broken promises the Tánaiste himself made. The first one is on income tax. He said: "[I] believe we can do about €1.4 billion each year in tax measures over the next five years. And that will be made up of both the changes to the income thresholds ...[and] also changing the entry points to the various USC ban[d]s". That is what the Tánaiste said to The Irish Times in November last year, one week before the general election. He broke that promise on Tuesday. In one of the largest tax-cutting packages in the history of the State, at a time when it was never more needed, he could not even give ordinary workers a single cent in an income tax boost. The Tánaiste betrayed more than 2.5 million workers. That is on him. However, he found the money for big tax breaks for developers and landlords. It says everything about his priorities.

The second broken promise that he delivered on Tuesday was on student fees. Speaking on social media in November last year, just two weeks before the general election, he said: "I think we need to really phase out third-level fees. I've strong views on that." What happened? How can student fees be phased out while parents and students are being asked to pay €500 more this year than they paid last year?

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