OPPOSITION POLITICIANS ISSUED a scathing response after the government announced its Budget measures today, with the main non-coalition parties arguing it will only serve to make ordinary people worse off.

Tax cuts for developers, an increase of only €10 to weekly social welfare payments, and the lack of progress in addressing childcare costs were hot-button issues in the political reaction.

The government had promised to work towards reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month. However, while 35,000 more places will be created by an injection of funding to the sector, it will not reduce the cost for parents.

Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said in the wake of the Budget that he hopes the government will “go further” on childcare in future.

Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said:

“I have never seen election promises abandoned so fast and so completely.”

He hit out at the lack of a cost-of-living package in a time when prices continue to rise.

Social welfare recipients such as pensioners have been “shortchanged”, Doherty said, as the €10 increase to payments “doesn’t even cover the cost of food inflation”.

Doherty said it is “shocking” that one in five children are living in poverty while the government makes a €10 billion surplus.

“It’s a national disgrace and it didn’t happen by chance. It’s happening because of the budgets that you have introduced in this house year after year,” he said.

Doherty hit out at comments by Tánaiste Simon Harris, who previously said reducing the cost of childcare was a priority. 

Where is it? Where is it? There is no reduction in the cost of childcare for people in this budget.

‘Big Mac’ Budget

The Social Democrats said the government could have used the budget to help struggling families, but it instead rewards the wealthy.

Finance spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan is calling it the “McBudget” and argued  “it awards multinational companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks millions in extra profits by reducing their VAT rate to 9%“.

After the 2024 general election, the government said it would reduce the hospitality VAT rate, as many businesses in the sector were shutting their doors, citing high energy bills, higher wages and rising rents.

Minister Chambers said the move was about protecting hospitality workers, including those working for big chains. 

O’Callaghan said Budget 2026 is also “a bonanza for big developers” as they’ll pay less VAT too.

“The government is not even insisting that property prices or rents go down as a precondition for such a generous concession,” he said.

“It is being done with one express purpose – to boost developers’ profits.”

The Labour Party also hit out at the “no strings attached” approach to developers.

Housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan said: “With the VAT cut coming in to play from midnight tonight, developers will make an extra 4% on apartment sales, which is on top of the 15-20% margins made on apartments as it is.

Just what is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil playing at?

Sheehan said it was “disgraceful” that while developers get tax breaks, there are no new measures to reduce homelessness.

“It’s effectively an admission that they’ve thrown in the towel on housing solutions,” he said.