A GIVEAWAY BUDGET, a budget on steroids, a gravy-train budget.
Those were some of the phrases uttered by opposition party members in the Dáil today.
Privately, government TDs were only too happy to own the phrase “giveaway budget”, especially as most think it will benefit them as we hurtle towards an election.
From now until Christmas people will be bombarded with one-off credits and double payments. The government parties hope the short-term benefit felt in people’s pockets will be fresh in their memory when they head to the ballot box.
Taoiseach Simon Harris holding a media event tomorrow morning with all his Fine Gael ministers and general election candidates is only adding fuel to that speculation.
So too is confirmation today from Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien that government plans to guillotine one of its pillar pieces of legislation next week – the planning bill – expediting its enactment.
Today, there was back-slapping for Finance Minister Jack Chambers as he announced the €10.5 billion Budget package, which included cost-of-living measures which amounted to just shy of what they spent on the “one-off” measures last year.
Two rows back, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and former Tánaiste and minister Simon Coveney were seated together, looking on at proceedings they used to oversee.
How times have changed.
But have they really?
The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council doesn’t appear to think so. It hit out against the government this afternoon, stating that Ireland needs a more serious vision that doesn’t repeat the “boom-to-bust pattern of its past”.
Alluding back to those days and the 2007 giveaway budget, Social Democrats Róisín Shortall said: “Truly this is a Bertie budget. It is a Bertie budget for the ages.”
She added that this budget is merely about the self preservation of the government parties.
Pondering that preservation, one minister asked reporters today: “How is it landing?”
While the average worker will be happy with the tax breaks and lump sum payments, some were unhappy. The hospitality sector were eager to get the 9% VAT rate restored. Meanwhile, housing and homeless organisations said the government could have gone further.
And then there’s people with no children who don’t own a home of their own who were left wondering if the government think of them at all (though Donohoe says there is lots in the budget for them).
Sinn Féin exchanged barbs with their opponents in the Dáil today, with the Taoiseach called “Mr Soundbite” and the government parties accused of buying the Irish people with their own money.
Sinn Féin, fresh from their Ard Fheis over the weekend, did appear to lack the usual loud criticisms of government, but honed in on elements such as lacklustre housing promises and hammered home the government’s overspends on the Leinster House bike shed, security hut and the Ukrainian modular homes.
“This is not a giveaway budget. This is a giving-up-on-housing budget. The Government has raised the white flag when it comes to housing, affordable housing and renters,” declared Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty.
There is no doubt that the bumper payments are welcomed by most, making it difficult for those on the opposition benches to criticise.
In attempting to deliver a ‘one for everyone in the audience’ kind of budget, the government knows opposition TDs will struggle to say why families should not get more supports in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
So close to election time, all politicians, including those in opposition, know all too well they will be making similar pledges and promises to the electorate.
They will knock on doors, just like the government parties, with manifestos filled with bumper budget spends under their arms.
When might they be knocking on our doors?
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe moved to dampen the feverish speculation that the budget unveiled today was a precursor to an imminent election.
“We now have to do all the legislation to underpin all the spending for next year and Minister Chambers has to do the Finance Bill, which always takes time to do.
“So it’s up to the Taoiseach (and) the party leaders to discuss the timing of the next election. We’ve plenty to do now in the coming weeks and months.”
The finance minister also insisted the government had a “job of work to do” and his focus was now on advancing the Finance Bill through the Dail, which he said will take a “couple of weeks”.
Doherty said it is in this context of this budget in which the government will be judged come election time.
Addressing the Taoiseach, Doherty told Harris to go to the people now, stating: “Let us call the election, let us put this to the people and let the people decide who presents the next budget.”
Perhaps a hint of when the general election could be called or maybe just a throwaway remark, who knows, Harris replied: “Let us pass this budget first.”
All eyes on the next two weeks so.
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