Mixed welcome across Cork for budget measures 

Budget 2027 received a mixed welcome in Blackpool and across Cork city yesterday, with many who spoke with The Echo saying measures had not gone far enough.

The lunchtime crowd in The Groves was unimpressed by the budget, but with no increase on the pint, the Beamish and Murphy’s went down well just the same.

For those in the pub this time last year, PaschalDonohoe’s final budget drew a consensus of: 'You wouldn’t go mad on an extra tenner on the pension".  

A similar sentiment applied yesterday to Tánaiste Simon Harris’s first outing.

Timmy O’Mahony, 73, is from The Glen and originally hails from Watergrasshill.

“Well, I’m up a tenner, and that’s better than nothing, I suppose,” he said, raising his Beamish “to Billy Kelleher”, if not to the MEP’s Dáil colleagues.

At the bar, a retired carpenter and union official declined to give his name but described the budget as “poor”.

“A €10 increase in social welfare isn’t keeping up with inflation,” he said.

“This is just a mid-election budget, they won’t start firing money at us till next year.”

Philip Meehan, who has a disability, said he was happy with the new annual €500 cost of disability payment, but he said “the good was taken out of it” by the increase of €1 on the price of a packet of cigarettes.

“They might be bad for you, but we have few enough comforts,” he said, taking a sip from his Murphy’s.

Mr Meehan’s friend, Dermot O’Brien, said there was one constant truth about budgets: “It’s the working man and woman pays for everything”.

Behind the bar, Darragh O’Connell said the €15m package for rural pubs wasn’t much use to him.

“With the cost of doing business going up all the time, I’d say you’ll see a lot of places closing over the next 12 months,” he said.

Concerned about winter months 

Over at Blackpool Shopping Centre, the general feeling was that people were underwhelmed by Budget 2027 and still concerned about the winter months ahead.

Jacqueline O’Riordan felt the budget did not fully address the cost-of-living challenges that people are facing.

Asked if there was any benefit for her, she replied: “From what I have seen of it — absolutely nothing.

“It will benefit those with disabilities, those with childcare needs, and those on social welfare, more so than the actual middle-income earner. That, to me, is the long story short,” she said.

“Ultimately, will I benefit? No.”

Mary Prendergast from Farranree said the rising cost of living, including fuel and home heating, will be a challenge for her as the nights get darker and the weather gets colder.

“It will be a challenge for everybody,” she said. “It is not just going to be a certain group of people. As for the fuel allowance, it is not enough at all. Especially the elderly, which I am one of now. We just have to struggle on with it.

“The Government would want to up the allowances for everyone. It isn’t just elderly people.”

She said she now has to ration her home heating. “It will have to be certain hours in the day and depending on the weather.”

Another Farranree woman, Michelle Leighton, said the budget did not go far enough to address the cost-of-living challenges faced by people across Cork.

“Of course it is a challenge,” she said. “The price of groceries is going up. Every single thing is unaffordable now. It is a struggle to live today and that is from a person that is working with two incomes coming through the household. It is hard.

“Everyone is in the same situation, and everyone will be considering when they are putting on their heating this year.”

Among the measures approved by the ministers for finance and public expenditure was a €10 increase in weekly social welfare rates, benefiting 1.6m pensioners, jobseekers, carers, and people on disability payments.

The fuel allowance is to go up by €5, and the living alone allowance will increase by €3.

Measures for elderly welcome

Cork advocate for the elderly, Paddy O’Brien, welcomed the extra measures for the elderly, but believed more could have been done.

“The senior citizens will welcome a €10 weekly social welfare increase, but I think the fuel allowance should have been increased more. Heating is vital for the elderly,” he said.

“I am very disappointed in the rise to the living alone allowance.

“They are the real victims of elderly poverty, trying to get by with just one State pension, and €3 is not going to do anything for them.”

The chief executive of older people’s charity Alone, Seán Moynihan, said: “Once-off cost of living payments helped keep many older people out of poverty. But those payments are gone, and the increases announced today do not fully replace them.”

The price of a packet of 20 cigarettes rose by €1 from midnight, and vapes will also become more expensive with an excise increase of 20 cents per ml.

This means an increase of 40 cents on disposable vapes and €2 on a 10ml vape-juice bottle.

Cork city Labour Party councillor and HSE regional health forum chairman Peter Horgan said the Government “should have hit the vaping lobby much harder” in the budget.

“If we are serious about protecting young people from nicotine addiction, we need to make vaping less affordable and less accessible,” he said.

“We should not wait for a generation to become addicted to nicotine before we decide to act.”

Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) said it was disappointed by the Government’s decision not to increase excise duties on alcohol, noting this is the 13th year in succession that duties have not been touched.

This is “compounded by the misguided decision to give away €15m” to rural publicans, the spokesperson added.

Carbon tax criticism 

In respect of environmental issues, Green Party city councillor Oliver Moran was critical of the move not to increase the carbon tax.

“The carbon tax isn’t popular, but most people accept it’s one component in an overall policy for climate action,” he said.

“The spike in fuel prices is down to Trump’s war with Iran.

“We had this before when things spiked after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We took temporary measures then, and that was right, but connecting the spike now with the rolling back of policies on climate action is a wrong idea.”