Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)

What the Government showed on Tuesday is just how completely out of touch it is with some of the struggles of normal people. It announced the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector and handed out rewards to developers, fast food chains and lobbyists - the well-connected who do not need a cent of the money involved. Meanwhile, the people who keep this country running by going to work and paying their taxes did not get anything. The budget does not tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Food, energy, petrol and rent are all up. Wages and social welfare payments are not keeping pace. The only thing that is going down is people’s sense of belief that the Government is actually going to do something to help them. Families are cutting corners on basics, yet they still cannot get through the month. The Government needed to step in and give them some breathing space, but this did not happen. My constituency of Dublin Fingal West is bursting at the seams. Every day I deal with issues to do with housing, transport and a lack of public infrastructure. The same issues are being ignored again and again.

Let us start with early education, which was the big election promise. We all remember the Tánaiste doing his best Ryanair impression by promising cheaper childcare for all. The Government announced a budget of €1.47 billion, and that sounds impressive until you read the small print. The money will be spread so thin that it is hardly going to make a dent. If the Government wants to know what it could have done better in that regard, it could have started the transition to the public early education system. It could also have taken responsibility for the wages, which are 70% of providers’ costs. If it did that, it could start to bring childcare costs down to €200 per month for parents.

On disability services, the Government has added more funding there too, apparently. It looks good on paper, but it is pouring money into a black hole that has no targeted supports. In my constituency, a child called Willow who is turning nine this month has been waiting two years for speech and language therapy. She finally had her assessment last month. Her parents were told she needs therapy, but the problem is she has to wait another two years to get it. Imagine that. She will be 11 years of age before she accesses any form of therapy. I have reached out to the Ministers for Health and children to ask them to intervene. What is happening is not good enough. The families of Dublin Fingal West deserve better than that.

What my constituency needed more than anything was funding for transport in order that people who are being stranded due to overcrowded buses and trains could get to work in the morning. It also needed funding for Garda stations like those in Rush and Lusk, which open two hours a week.

In budget 2026, the Government announced nothing new. It put funding that was already there into a tumbler, added some glitter and loose change and called it new funding. The people the Government is supposed to service deserve better.

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