Budget 2026 must strike a balance between protecting our economic security, dealing with the long-term challenges we face as a society, and providing targeted support to hard-pressed households, according to Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
Speaking at today’s launch of ‘Better Services, Stronger Communities – Alternative Budget 2026’, Deputy Cairns said:
“When we launched our Alternative Budget this time last year, I warned that the government was squandering record budget surpluses. Instead of investing wisely, they attempted to buy the election.
“However, now that there is no election on the horizon, the government has suddenly realised that non-targeted one-off measures are not wise. While I’m glad they’ve finally come around to our way of thinking, it is a pity it took them so long.
“One-off measures are welcome in the moment, but they don’t last and don’t make tangible differences – not to the lives of people with disabilities; not to households choosing between heating or eating; not to the children experiencing consistent poverty or living in homeless emergency accommodation.
“Early indications point to another Budget that will just tinker around the edges, with unimaginative measures like more tax breaks for big developers.
“The Alternative Budget we are publishing today charts a different course for Ireland, focusing on targeted supports for vulnerable households, measures to reduce child poverty, increased investment in public services and a new core weekly payment to recognise the cost of disability.”
Social Democrats finance spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan said:
“All across the country, people are struggling to make ends meet. The public finances are in a strong position, but for many people, this hasn’t fed through into the reality of their daily lives.
“Ireland is now the second most expensive country in the European Union, with the price of goods and services 38 per cent above the EU average in 2024. This high cost of living has many causes, but is in part due to decades of under-investment in the kinds of public services that are free, or almost free, in other Western European countries.
“If the government is serious about reducing the cost of living and supporting working people and families, it should use the majority of available resources to invest in better quality public services and social infrastructure. It must tackle the high cost of those services and reduce the cost of living in areas like housing, healthcare, childcare and education.”
The Social Democrats’ priorities in Budget 2026 include:
- Lifting up to 40,000 children out of poverty with a new second tier of Child Benefit.
- Increasing State-led supply of affordable homes, and investing €120 million in a modular homes factory to turbocharge delivery. This factory would be funded by removing subsidies for developers.
- Abolishing the means test for Carer’s Allowance – something the government must do in Budget 2026 if it wants to match its rhetoric about valuing care with action.
- Investing to bring down the cost of education at all levels. This includes maintaining the €1,000 reduction in the student contribution fee at third level.
- Cutting childcare fees by more than €200 per month.
- Introducing a weekly cost of disability payment of €20.
- Energy credits worth €400, targeted at households in the lowest 40 per cent of incomes.
- Increasing pension and working age welfare payments by €15.
- Investing in Ireland’s clean energy future, via the creation of a Wind Energy Fund.
- Increasing total paid leave for parents to cover the first 12 months of a child’s life.
- A €100 Sports and Activity voucher for all children aged 6 to 18, to ensure that no child misses out on club membership due to unaffordability.
October 1, 2025
NOTE: Full text of Alternative Budget here