Kathriona Devereux: Put the children first when you plan Budget 2026, ministers
Not the childhood pursuit of galloping across a green with a kite held aloft, hoping to catch the wind. Rather, the political exercise of floating future budgetary measures in the weeks before Budget Day - so the ensuing public outrage doesn’t fall to earth all at once on October 7.
Amidst the discussions about VAT rates for restaurants, tightening the public purse, and protecting jobs, I have heard little about how investing in children and young people must be placed at the centre of Budget 2026.
When the Irish state was still finding its feet, 40% of the babies born between 1931 and 1941 had emigrated by the time they were young adults in 1961. All that talent and potential gone to other shores, to work, live and love away from their families and communities.
Not to mention the sore hearts of parents who lived in Ireland with a piece of their flesh and blood located far away.
This staggering statistic was shared by writer Fintan O’Toole in the recent RTÉ documentary that assessed the life and legacy of Éamon de Valera.
de Valera presided over a time when it was the norm to export a child to the U.S, Australia, and UK. Young people left then, and for decades after, because there were few prospects at home.
A National Youth Council of Ireland survey recently showed that 60% of under-25s are considering emigration, with more than three in 10 “strongly considering” it.
Of course, Irish people have always wanted to get off the island and sample life and adventure elsewhere, but survey respondents said that housing (64%) and the cost of living (70%) disproportionately affects them.
Their job prospects are strong, but a good education and secure job are no longer enough to keep on top of the bills and live independently.
And it’s not just young adults being failed.
According to the Children’s Rights Alliance, the proportion of children experiencing consistent poverty rose sharply last year-from 4.8% in 2023 to 8.5% in 2024. That equates to an additional 45,107 children living in the worst form of poverty in Ireland.
But at a time when there are more than 5,000 homeless children in Ireland, child poverty is rising, and three in five under-25s are considering leaving the country, protecting our youngest citizens should surely be top of the list?
The Children’s Rights Alliance is calling for Budget 2026 to be a Children’s Budget; one which places children and families most at risk of poverty and disadvantage at the forefront of budgetary decision-making.
Apart from Ireland’s obligations to fully enact the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, investing in the health and wellbeing of babies, infants, schoolkids, and young adults is a prudent use of public funds.
Purely transactionally, a child supported and nurtured in their early years is more likely to become a functional, tax-paying adult in the future.
Success might not be measurable immediately, or in a four-year election cycle, but let’s do all we can to create a society that never again rears our children for export.
Gazan parents are not worrying about whether their child might have to emigrate for a better life in the future. They are praying their child survives a genocide-and that the global community finally stops it.
“What do we do?” asked Francesca Albanese to the 12,500-capacity audience at the Together for Palestine fundraising event in Wembley Arena last week.
It’s a question we are all asking ourselves as the horrors in Gaza and West Bank continue unabated.
Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, urged us to “organise. Protest. Demand more from your representatives. Disrupt. Boycott. Speak out. Speak out at dinner tables, on streets, online. Relinquish an inch of your privilege so that an entire people don’t have to lose everything”.
The charity concert raised more than £1.5 million and saw high profile celebrities and musicians voice their support.
She may be right. Recent public surveys in Germany and the U.S have shown growing concern for the situation in Palestine. The UK, Canada and Australia formally recognised Palestinian statehood, and France, Belgium and Portugal are expected to follow.
But recognition without real action is meaningless. Arms sales to Israel must stop. Trade with illegal settlements must be banned. And all legal and economic measures must be deployed to end Israel’s violations of international law.
In Ireland, we must continue to protest to push our politicians to do more - both at home and at EU level.
Some Irish activists are taking that call all the way to Gaza. Author Naoise Dolan, psychotherapist Caoimhe Butterly, poet Sarah Clancy, and Cork’s own comedian Tadhg Hickey have joined the Global Sumud Flotilla - a fleet of 50 small vessels sailing from Mediterranean ports to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid.
Activism also takes quieter forms. At last week’s Palestine protest in Cork city, ‘craftivism’ was on display: a crocheted blanket, metres long, stretched along the Grand Parade. Each square represented ten Palestinian children killed. There were 2,400 squares.
The official death toll now stands at 65,000, but international experts say it is likely far higher.
“Each life is a universe forever gone,” Albanese reminded us in Wembley.
And that is why we must keep speaking up-for Palestinians, and for the lives that should never have been lost.
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