Budget 2024 ‘has not gone far enough’

Budget 2024 saw a cost-of-living package of once-off measures worth €2.7bn announced in the Dáil on Tuesday. However, representatives for the people most affected by cost-of-living crisis-induced poverty have warned the one-off measures do not go far enough to change the trajectory.

The measures announced to tackle the current crisis included energy credits, social welfare payment increases, and a one-off contribution to recipients of the fuel allowance. Cork Penny Dinners’ volunteer co-ordinator Caitríona Twomey said that she felt Budget 2024 was “an election budget and it will fall flat”.

“The things that need to be tackled (minimum wage, middle-wage earners) they’re all struggling with bills and the cost of living and the budget hasn’t gone far enough.

“The promises the Government has made are not going to sustain people, and a lot of people have expressed disappointment with the budget already.

“Old people are crippled with the cost of having to keep themselves warm”, Ms Twomey said, and that she had heard from many that the increases to social welfare payments and the pension were “not even half the price of a bag of coal”.

The Penny Dinners volunteer was not the only one to criticise the one-time measures, with People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett saying: “The Government is seeking to dazzle and fool people with once-off measures, but the reality is that poverty, deprivation, financial hardship inequality are not once-off phenomena, they are systemic, and once-off measures will simply not cut it.

“And despite the attempts to dazzle people with these once-off measures, the net fact when you look closely at this Budget, is that taking into account the cost-of-living hikes, rises in inflation, the increasing rents, ordinary workers will be worse off after this budget.”

The ordinary workers were a point of concern for Ms Twomey too, who clarified: “When I mention poverty, I don’t just mean the poorest people, I also mean the working poor who are struggling hugely. Where do they stand in all of this?”

“The new poor are the working poor, they are struggling to pay medical bills, and all for having a job.”

“So where’s the incentive for going out and doing their best?

“The overall lasting effect of this budget is that they’ll still be crippled.”