Pensions, rent, the high cost of living and housing were among to key topics that stood out most for those we spoke to.

Cork Penny Dinners’ volunteer co-ordinator Caitríona Twomey said that she felt Budget 2024 was “an election budget and it will fall flat”.

Kevin Herlihy, who also runs a number of Centra stores in Cork, said that rising costs of energy and an increase in the national minimum wage, among other factors, will put additional pressures on SMEs in Cork this winter.

The new measure, which comes on the back of last year’s €47m scheme to provide free books for primary school students, will mean that 770,000 students across primary and secondary schools will now get free textbooks, workbooks and other items such as calculators and dictionaries.

Among the headline measures announced for transport yesterday was an extension of the Young Adult Card, giving young people a 50% discount in public transport fares for two more years.

The announcement that the restoration of the last remaining eight cent on the litre of diesel would not now go ahead on October 31 as scheduled, but would take place in two equal segments on April 1 and August 1 of next year was one of a number of measures aimed at motorists.

Owner of Koto on Carey’s Lane in the city centre, Jeff Safar Hamidi said he was “disappointed” that the Vat rate was not addressed during the budget announcement, describing it as “the perfect opportunity for the Government to revisit the Vat increase from last month or to decouple it from hotel rooms”.

The increase in the price of a packet of cigarettes was punishing smokers, a spokesman for the lobby group, Forest Ireland, said.

Concubhar Ó Liatháin looks ahead to today's budget and breaks down what could be announced across the key sectors of concern among the general public

Speaking ahead of a meeting with ministers before today’s spending package is announced, Micheál Martin also referred to the free primary schoolbooks scheme and said: “We will be seeking to build on that in the forthcoming budget.”

The students of Togher Girls and Togher Boys National Schools shared their spending suggestions and told us what they see as the big issues facing Ireland today.

“We have cycle lanes, we can do with more segregation but the building blocks are there," he said.

The Mallow Relief Road was mentioned in the Prospects 2023-24 document which stated that the project would get underway in 2025 and would be completed by 2028.

The Budget 2024 package is set at 6.4 billion euro, with taxation measures amounting to 1.1 billion euro.

In his letter to the UCC community around the world, Prof O’Halloran said that he and the heads of the seven other members of the Irish Universities Association had written to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and four Government ministers to highlight the case of the sector

The details have been published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as part of preparations for the publication of Budget 2024 in two weeks.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a report on Thursday that suggested a payment to households based on their means and the number of children could take more than 40,000 children out of poverty.

South Munster Mabs, which provides free, non-judgemental, and confidential money and budgeting advice across Cork, has made its recommendations for Budget 2024 following workshops and feedback identified by those working with clients including money advisers, dedicated mortgage advisers, and Mabs personnel.