Alternative Budget 2025

The cost-of-living crisis has been exacerbated by decades of underinvestment. We must address the chronic deficits that exist across our public services

The Social Democrats have launched their Alternative Budget 2025 – titled ‘Building Services, Building Communities’ – which seeks to strike a balance between providing relief to hard-pressed families while dealing with the long-term challenges Ireland faces as a society.

Housing, climate action, childcare, parent’s leave, education and significant investment in public services – including the continued implementation of Sláintecare – are among the priorities set out in the party’s pre-Budget document, published September 26 2024.

The party’s key priorities for 2025 include:

• Building 12,000 new social homes and 10,000 affordable home – including 5,000 cost rental and 5,000 affordable purchase homes.
• Capitalising a Climate Transformation fund that has a focus on off-shore wind energy and a commitment to fit solar panels on 100,000 homes and buildings per year.
• Extending paid Parent’s Leave by four weeks per parent and increasing weekly Maternity, Adoptive, Paternity and Parent’s Benefit Payments to €350.
• Increasing core social welfare payments by €25 per week.
• Raising the Qualified Child Increase for over 12s and under 12s to €69 and €52 respectively.
• Introducing a €30 per week Cost of Disability payment.
• Making primary and secondary education in Ireland fully free.
• A phased reduction of third level student contribution fees, starting with a €1,000 decrease for 2025.
• Funding for extra posts across GP services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and community therapies to build capacity at primary care level.
• Rolling out free GP care for under 12s.
• Introducing a ‘Super Wealth’ tax and a phasing out of income tax credits for the highest earners.

The Government regularly talks about putting money back in people’s pockets. These days, however, this phrase seems to mean tax cuts for the better off, with a focus on changing tax bands which gives the same benefit to the highest earners as it does to middle-income households, while offering nothing to those on low incomes. This needs to change.

While it’s important to give some relief to households while prices are still rising, the majority of available resources should be invested in public services and reductions in the cost-of-living in areas like housing, healthcare, childcare, education, transport and energy.

The cost-of-living crisis we have experienced this decade has been significantly exacerbated by the decades of underinvestment that preceded it. We must address the chronic deficits that exist across our public services.

Ireland is now the most expensive country in the European Union, with the exception of Luxembourg, with the price of goods and services for households 45 per cent above the EU average in 2023. This is largely because successive governments have tried to treat the symptoms of Ireland’s high cost of living, and not the causes.

This approach will never get to grips with the problem. It is important to tackle the structural problems around issues like low income, child poverty, disability inequality and public service deficits.