Senior Government figures have defended the spending plans announced in Budget 2027, despite sharp criticism from the State’s financial watchdog and opposition politicians.
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) accused the coalition of playing “fast and loose” with the public finances, putting them on a worse trajectory.
“The Government should be saving more, making its tax base more secure, and avoiding aimless drift” IFAC added in a statement.
Minster for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee responded, saying: “There’s people saying we spent too much, people saying not enough”.
She told reporters in Dublin that the Government had “tried to get a balance”.
The coalition has “invested in people and services”, Ms McEntee said, including Income Tax changes, Carbon Tax policies and new plans to help people retrofit their homes.
The measures, she added, are designed to “ensure the money we have now will benefit” people into the future.
The minister said the budget was “one year in a five-year cycle” and “you can’t do” everything in one year.
In the Dáil, Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the budget as “pathetic” and “underwhelming”, and a financial plan that “ended up pleasing nobody”.
She told Taoiseach Micheál Martin that the Government had failed to deliver on a number of promises, including significant help for those struggling to pay bills and a €100 culture card for 16-year-olds.
Ms Bacik also criticised the budget’s failture to reverse imminent public transport fare rises.
Mr Martin said that he disagreed “fundamentally” with the Labour leader’s analysis.
He said the Government took action on Income Tax to help workers and increased the rent tax credit.
“This budget can’t be seen in isolation,” the Taoiseach said, as it needs to be seen as one of five to be delivered during the coalition’s lifetime.
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Social Democrats’ deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan claimed that pensioners living alone received the equivalent of a butter voucher after a €3 a week increase in their allowance.
During Leaders’ Questions, he described the rise as a “joke” that “wouldn’t cover the cost of a cup of tea in a café” nor “cover the cost of a pound of butter in the supermarket”.
“That’s the level of support pensioners living alone got in yesterday’s budget, the equivalent of a butter voucher”, Mr O’Callaghan said.
The Taoiseach said that it was unfair to look at the payment in isolation because of the number of other supports for older people announced yesterday.
Mr Martin pointed to a €10 weekly increase in the State pension and a rise in the fuel allowance.
He said the Government was on track to meet its commitment to raise the pension payment to €350 a week during its term in office.
‘People never felt as poor as they do today’ – SF
Earlier, Sinn Féin described the State as never being as rich, but people never feeling as poor as they do today.
The party’s Spokesperson on Public Expenditure Mairéad Farrell said that it would have fairer to abolish the Universal Social Charge (USC) for people earning up to €40,000.
This would have “actually meant something for all workers, for the majority of workers, or the majority of workers today who work hard,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Yesterday, the Government announced a €1,600 increase in the entry threshold for the USC 3% band, rising from €28,700 to €30,300.
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