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Mary Lou McDonald at her party's event today. Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews.ie
Alternative Budget Season
The Budget is on Tuesday - here's what Sinn Féin and others say they would do if in charge
Guess which party wants to introduce nationalised supermarkets?
LAST UPDATE | 2 Oct 2025
AHEAD OF NEXT week’s Budget, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, People Before Profit and the Green Party have today set out what each of them would do with the country’s money if in government.
Speaking at her party’s launch in Ballsbridge, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said the cost-of-living crisis is not over.
“The price of everything is going through the roof – energy bills, rent, insurance, childcare and groceries. This is why we are proposing a €2.5bn cost-of-living package to help people through the winter, to help households to get by,” she said.
If in government, Sinn Féin has outlined that it would include one-off measures in this year’s Budget, unlike Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who have already made clear that there will be none.
Among Sinn Féin’s key proposals, the party has said it would scrap student fees entirely, continue the €450 energy credits, and reduce the cost of childcare to €10 a day.
For renters, it said it would put a month’s rent back in their pockets and ban rent increases for three years.
For workers, the party said it would scrap USC on the first €40,000 of income.
Elsewhere, it said it would abolish the TV license and scrap carbon tax increases on petrol, diesel, home heating oil and gas.
Meanwhile, at the Labour Party’s launch today at the party’s HQ on Dublin’s Aungier Street, the party’s finance spokesperson TD Ged Nash said the government is “wasting the boom” and doesn’t understand the depth of the crisis facing many households this winter.
Among his party’s alternative Budget priorities was a suggestion to introduce a second tier of child benefit (funded by not reducing VAT in the hospitality sector) and reduce the cost of childcare to €50 a week.
The party also said it would like to introduce free GP care to all children, not just children under eight as is currently the case.
On student fees, Labour said it would end voluntary contributions and introduce a permanent €1,000 cut to fees.
Over at the People Before Profit (PBP) alternative Budget launch, the party said it would introduce a €9b wealth tax levied on multinationals.
The party also set out plans today for a publicly owned, non-profit State grocery service.
PBP said this would be a way of getting fairly priced food to communities that need it most. A similar proposal has been mooted in New York by New York Mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani.
At the Social Democrats’ alternative Budget launch yesterday, the party suggested that the State build a €120m modular home factory to help solve the housing crisis.
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