What you say: The people of Cork find plenty to criticise in Budget 2025

There has been mixed reaction to Budget 2025 and yesterday The Echo spoke to shoppers in Wilton Shopping Centre to get their two cents on the plan.

While most were unhappy with what was described as both a “crap” and “political stunt” announcement, some were pleased with the measures introduced to alleviate pressures for new parents and families.

Speaking to The Echo, six shoppers detailed their frustrations with this year’s allocations, with particular attention paid to the increased weekly supports introduced for those on social welfare and those collecting pension payments, as well as the increased tax credits.

Eileen Firmo from Shanakiel said: “As a pensioner, what’s €12 going to do for me? It wouldn’t even get me a bag of coal.

“I can’t see my life being massively upgraded for €12 a week.

“It’s after getting to the stage now that Ireland is not going forwards, it’s going backwards.”

Another shopper from Cobh, Noel O’Donovan, who will also benefit from the additional €12 per week payment, said: “I didn’t really tune in, I had a little listen, but I wouldn’t be that knowledgeable on it.

“It won’t make that big of a difference [for me] but it’ll help I suppose, anything you get for free is always good.

“There were a few [other] pluses, I’m delighted to see that the children’s allowance has gone up, and that once-off grant for people who have just had a baby, you always need money for that, so I wouldn’t be against that.”

Speaking on the increased tax credits, another shopper, Mary Turner from Carrigaline, said: “I did tune in, and the only thing I was interested in really was the tax.

“I don’t work but my husband does, and I made out that he will gain €23 a week between the USC and extra tax credits — which won’t really impact our lives.”

The individuals we spoke to also shared where they think the Government should have given “more thought” when allocating money for the year ahead.

“They need to allocate more money to hospitals, to get more staff, [because] they’re precious,” added Ms Firmo.

“We need more nurses and more doctors.”

Mr O’Donovan said: “Housing is a disaster no matter how much money they spend. I don’t think it makes much difference throwing money at things, it doesn’t seem to improve matters.”

Meanwhile, the minister for public expenditure yesterday pushed back against criticism from the independent budget watchdog, who warned that Budget 2025 “repeats Ireland’s past mistakes of pumping billions into the economy” when it is at full employment.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said that the Government needs to deliver on the economy’s needs without “repeating the boom-to-bust pattern of its past”.

The watchdog also said that only half of the Government’s €2.1bn of cost-of-living measures were targeted.

The universal energy credits, child benefit payments, and extension to Vat cuts on electricity and gas make up €1bn of this.

“The same supports could have been provided to those most in need at a much lower cost,” it added.

Mr Donohoe said that Ifac is a “really important organisation and institution” in advising on economic policy.

He said that he and Finance Minister Jack Chambers produced a budget that is a balance between protecting the country into the future but also “meeting the needs of today”.

He made the comments after the two ministers took to RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show for the annual budget phone-in special.

“Jack and I have just been on a programme for an hour in which we have had many members of the public calling in, looking for more spending and lower taxes, and they are making those calls on the basis of really important issues within their own lives,” Mr Donohoe said.

“What we have to do is try to balance between protecting us against what the future could bring, but also meeting the needs of today.

“If you look at this budget purely from a spending perspective, a majority of the spending that we have in the permanent spending is all about standing still.

“It’s about maintaining the quality of the public services that we currently have with a relatively small amount of new measures.

“Ifac are doing their job, and we listen to them, they play a really important role in the budget decisions that we make.”

What you had to say:

Ger Walsh — Douglas: “I didn’t pay attention to it at all [but] I heard that there was something done with the USC, a reduction, and some tax credits going up, but I have no clue how much we got. I certainly think it was a political stunt, I think there’s going to be a general election next month, and that was a part of it.”

Amie Turner – Carrigaline: “I didn’t tune into it, [but] childcare would’ve been the biggest area of interest for me. I know they did up the child benefit a little bit which is good, but I don’t think much happened for me, because I’m working class. I think they could’ve helped working class people a bit more, rather than just people on social welfare.”

Noel O’Donovan — Cobh: “I do feel it was a pretty good budget overall, you could say it was a little bit of a giveaway budget, there’s elections coming up so they were bound to be giving a little extra, [but] I don’t think anyone was very unhappy with it, maybe restaurateurs because it is hard to make money in this country if you run a business.”

Mary Turner – Carrigaline: “For families with children, its very tough, [and] all these quick fixes like double child benefits, its not really benefitting anyone at the end of the day. I was disappointed when I heard that the petrol and diesel will be going up, we will probably be worse off, because we use a lot of petrol, so it hasn’t helped us in any way.”

“They always look after the people with money, they don’t look after the people that need money. They’re not looking after the next generation, it was crap. They did nothing for people with disabilities apart from giving them the extra €12. They did nothing for children with autism, and they did nothing for creches.”

“I didn’t tune in fully but I did hear, of course, what affects the vapes. The incremental rise in tax, it’s one way of pushing people back on the cigarettes, which is the immediate issue for us. A lot of products are being drawn back already and we’re probably going to see a huge drop-off of vape shops.”