Main Points
- Many people who benefited by €2,000 to €3,000 in last year’s budget from tax changes and “one-off” cash giveaways will see no benefit this year.
- Overall spending will increase substantially, by €9.4 billion, bringing total voted spending next year to €117 billion.
- Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said: “Every budget is about choices. No budget can do everything, nor should it attempt to.”
Key Reads
- Miriam Lord: Could Fianna Fáil’s day get worse? No turkey or ham on Dáil’s canteen menu for the Budget
- Budget Calculator 2026: From social welfare to tax how this year’s budget will affect your income
- Budget 2026 main points: Renters’ tax credit extended, minimal personal tax changes
- Cliff Taylor: Anti-populist budget offers little for middle income earners
Michelle Murphy, the Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland has said the budget is “really really disappointing”.
She said that while there were “some positive elements in terms of child poverty, overall it’s really, really disappointing if you look at the strategic approach to addressing poverty, to addressing social exclusion and to looking at where we’re going as a country because what kind of income certainty are we offering to those groups next year? It doesn’t seem to exist.”
She said that nowhere in the overall budget documentation is there projections beyond 2026. “That’s concerning as well in terms of where are we going as a country. And when you ally the fact that the payments have not been enough, there will be increases in wages. There’s no commitment to indexation. This time next year, those very vulnerable groups are going to find themselves worse off than they are now and no plan in terms of how to deal with that and at the same time what really also concerns us on the fiscal side is that when you strip out those windfall corporate tax measures we’re going to have a budget deficit of €13.5 billion next year with no plan as to how to deal with that."
The head of Inclusion Ireland has said the organisation is “deeply disappointed” by elements of Budget 2026, writes Vivienne Clarke
“One budget is not going to solve the crisis in children disability network teams, it’s going take a number of budget cycles, but €150m will go some way towards addressing the issues right now,’ said the organisation’s chief executive Derval McDonagh, on Morning Ireland
“I suppose what we’re deeply disappointed with in Budget 2026 are the measures in social protection, so we see the uplift in disability services and that is acknowledged, but unfortunately there has definitely not been enough of a focus to tackle disability poverty,” she added.
“So in the social protection announcements yesterday we’ve seen some measures in place such as the wage subsidy scheme being improved, people who are moving off disability allowance will keep their fuel allowance for five years etc and there is a disability allowance increase by €10 but this falls far short of what’s required and even in the last couple of budget cycles what we’ve seen Government do is acknowledge the cost of disability and that has not been in this budget this year.’
One of the most pressing problems facing Ireland is the housing crisis and Niamh Towey takes a closer look at just what has been done in the budget to try to ease that.
While some of the changes rolled out in Budget 26 won’t kick in for weeks or even many months, the impact of others is already being felt. As of midnight, the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes climbed by 50 cent, the price of petrol and diesel jumped by 2.5 cent while the VAT rate on the sale of completed apartments was cut to 9 per cent down from the 13.5 per cent it was yesterday.
The team of experts assembled by our business desk are online now answering questions from readers. Dominic Coyle, deputy business editor; Beryl Power, tax director at PwC Private Clients; and Jacinta Lynch, tax senior manager at PwC Private Clients are already hard at work.
On Morning Ireland Gavin Jennings has just asked political correspondent Paul Cunningham whether there anything new in this budget for anyone ... Apart from Ronald McDonald and property developers the answer, Cunningham suggests, is no. It is likely to be a long day for the Government.
Every year we do a winners and losers piece that examines who will be better off as a result of the budget and who will be worse off and by how much. As Fiona Reddan points out, there is not a whole lot to unpick this time round.
What does cautious look like, wonders our political editor Pat Leahy. It looks like this budget he suggests.
Paschal Donohoe stressed yesterday that this is the first of five budgets the Coalition will introduce and he was very, very keen to place the emphasis on prudence.
“Every budget is about choices. No budget can do everything, nor should it attempt to,” he said adding that it was a “a sensible budget that will safeguard our future”.
Jack Chambers said the budget “lays the foundations for our future” [and] shifts the focus from isolated departmental or sectoral needs to our country’s broader strategic priorities, considering the trade-offs and choices we’ll face along the way.”
The Opposition was left fuming and questioned what had become of various election promises and attacked the Government for ignoring the needs of ordinary people.
“The Government’s big message in this budget, and people have heard it loud and clear, is that people are on their own,” said Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty.
“There is no help with the cost-of-living crisis, no action to end the rip-off, no break on taxes, a blueprint for the continuation of the never-ending crises in our housing and health, and election promises torn up, one after the other, and thrown in the bin.”
Labour Party finance spokesman Ged Nash described the package as a “budget for burger barons and big builders”.
Representatives of rank-and-file gardaí, teachers and nurses all sharply criticised the offering, saying it fails to address the need for further recruitment in their respective areas.
Head of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that for the price of the VAT cut for hospitality, the Government could have hired 11,400 more nurses.
Given the level of pre-budget leaks opposition parties had more than enough time to prepare their responses but sometimes all it takes is a single tweet.
The dust has settled on Budget 2026 but there are many questions that have still to be answered.
The Irish Times has assembled a team of experts to answer some of the questions readers have and they will be busy all morning.
We can’t say for sure but one question that might come up over and over again might be “Is that it?”
Because as many, many pieces make clear today there is not a whole lot in the budget for a whole lot of people.
Meanwhile Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers the architects of the what has been dubbed the Burger Baron’s Budget – for reasons we can get into presently – will be on the Claire Byrne Show on RTÉ from 10am answering questions themselves.
And we will be bringing you snippets of what they have to say.
Today won’t be as long or as manic as yesterday but there will still be a lot to learn and that is where we come in and why we will be staying all day.
