‘A KitKat budget from a TikTok Tánaiste’: Ivana Bacik takes a bite out of the Coalition

Was Budget 2027 among the most unmemorable budgets of recent years? It certainly appeared so in the Dáil on Wednesday. The day after the Government unveiled an €8.5 billion budget package bringing public spending to a record level, Sinn Féin, the main Opposition party, seemed to have forgotten about it already. As Leaders’ Questions, the chamber’s traditional showpiece of the day, began at noon, it seemed inevitable that Mary Lou McDonald would relish hammering Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his Government over their budgetary shortcomings. Yet the Sinn Féin leader instead turned her attention to the situation on the Garvaghy Road and the standoff between Catholic residents of the Portadown estate and the Co Armagh Orangemen looking to march down their road. READ MOREIn fairness to McDonald there were more than seven hours allocated for budget statements later in the day, while her colleagues had been vocal with their criticism across the airwaves. The Coalition needn’t have worried that their efforts had gone unnoticed; the Social Democrats and Labour Party took up the mantle and adopted a sort of one-two combo approach. First up was the Social Democrats’ deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan, who accused the Taoiseach of breaking Fianna Fáil’s general election manifesto promise to give pensioners a €12 increase. Holding up a printed copy of said manifesto, O’Callaghan said there was a time when Fianna Fáil had “the backs of older people” and stood up for “the men and women who worked so hard to build this country”. “But those days are gone, because pensioners have been bitterly betrayed by you in your budget,” he said.Referencing the €3 increase in the living alone allowance, the Dublin Bay North TD said the amount would “not even buy a cup of tea in a cafe”. “It would just about cover the cost of a pound of butter in the supermarket.”In his response, Martin insisted his party does “have the back of pensioners and always do and our Coalition colleagues likewise”. The Taoiseach told the Social Democrats TD that his attitude was “spend, spend, spend”. “You don’t care about the economy,” he said. “You don’t care what creates the resources that we need to allocate to social protection. An increase in the social protection budget of €2 billion is quite substantial. The €10 pension increase is above the rate of inflation.”Next up was Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who provided the most lively soundbite of the afternoon. “You might call it a pathetic fallacy that it was pouring rain as your plans were revealed,” she began. “Indeed, the word ‘pathetic’ is appropriate in many ways because the money you say will go back into people’s pockets could barely buy a chocolate bar a week in reality. It’s a sort of KitKat budget from a TikTok Tánaiste.”The Labour TDs alongside her enjoyed that one, prompting the Minister of State at the Department of Justice Colm Brophy to ask: “Did you work that one up yourself?” [ It takes a giveaway budget of €8.5bn to not annoy anyone – except Patrick O’DonovanOpens in new window ]Bacik continued: “In seeking to please everybody, you’ve ended up pleasing nobody, especially not the Minister for Missing Culture Cards Patrick O’Donovan. In seriousness, this underwhelming budget has failed so many.”The Taoiseach said he disagreed fundamentally with the Dublin Bay South TD’s analysis of the budget and, with a grin on his face, added: “You’re hardly blaming us for the rain, are you?”Martin reiterated the budget was “quite substantial”, that it could not be looked at in isolation and there had been a “sea change” in the Government getting back into building social housing since 2020. “We will deliver five budgets, not just one, and you can’t look at any one in isolation.” Perhaps next year’s will be a little more memorable.