Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
YEARS AGO, YOU could nearly sell tickets to Budget Day such was the excitement and buzz around Leinster House, said one TD today.
Not so much this year.
In years gone by the corridors of power on Kildare Street would be be bustling with politicians, civil servants, political staff and journalists. But from early morning today, there was a quietness around the place.
“Where is everybody?” asked one bemused politician, who commented that the place was “dead”.
“The atmosphere is so flat,” said another, who noted that it had been well-flagged that this budget would not give a lot to anyone this year.
“The place is so quiet today,” said an opposition TD, who wondered whether the heavy security outside the gates today, which barricaded off much of the road, discouraging protests, had an impact on the mood in the House.
It wasn’t just the corridors where there was a lack of energy. It was also noticeable in the Dáil chamber.
Generally, the speeches by the finance and public expenditure ministers each year are way too long (this could also be said of today) and it can get people uncomfortable in their seats, particularly the opposition, who let off steam by heckling the government benches.
Despite the harsh criticisms about how the government reneged on many of the election promises and “hammered” workers, the opposition benches weren’t in their usual boisterous humour.
As the ministers outlined that there would be little or no income tax measures, no childcare fee cuts, no increase in the renters’ tax credit, there was silence.
It was only when Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe mentioned the carbon tax, did it get a rise from one Sinn Féin TD, Matt Carthy, who shouted that he was surprised Michael Healy Rae, who has been a prominent critic of the tax in the past, signed off on that one now that he is in government.
Carthy certainly had his Weetabix this morning, as he was also the first heckler to bring up the Jim Gavin controversy.
“When our sports men and women succeed a nation rises,” Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said in his address. Carthy was quick to shout across the chamber: “Just not in the presidential election.”
There was similar moments when the €500 cut to student fees (which still means that students will end up paying more) was announced and a bit of a back and forth between Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty and Tánaiste Simon Harris over the lack of childcare fee cuts.
However, there were no fireworks. Not even from the opposition this year.
“It almost feels like everyone is just resigned to this being a crap budget,” one TD commented today.
For many newly elected TDs, this was their first budget in the Dáil chamber. Some veteran politicians remarked that newbie TDs must be utterly unimpressed with today’s proceedings.
In the canteen today, one of those newbie TDs commented on just that, stating that they had heard stories over the years about the great excitement of budget day, but they hadn’t seen it today.
Government ministers attempted to be sanguine during their post-budget press conferences today. But the dull atmosphere had also spread next door into the press centre in Government Buildings.
“Is it always this thrilling,” joked one department staffer.
A damp squib was a word used repeatedly today. Not exactly the description this government will welcome for their first budget of its term.
Doherty said the government is banking on voters having short memories and not remembering this first budget come the next election.
The voters that delivered Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael back into government expect real delivery on the promises that were made, but all indications from Budget 2026 that people will be left wanting this year.
The government is taking a gamble that people will forget. Maybe they will.
Lacklustre, boring, unremarkable are certainly words linked to this budget that would make one forget.
But heartache, stress, and white-knuckling it to your next pay cheque. Those are certainly not feelings that people easily forget.
Unfortunately for this government, it’s these memories that are being made right now for people experiencing this cost-of-living crisis. And they stick around for people, often for years to come.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say