Budget 2027 will not be able to address ‘all of the challenges’ facing Ireland, Minister says

The Government will not be able to deal with all the challenges facing the country in the budget, the Minister for Social Protection has said. Dara Calleary said targeted measures would be brought forward on Tuesday week alongside tax cuts and investment in childcare.“We won’t be able to deal with all of the challenges at the moment,” he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics on Sunday. “We will have a budget on Tuesday that will reflect where people are at. We’ll try to answer where people are at. But I think we also have to be straight ... Will we be able to deal with everything? No, but we will certainly show a targeted investment where people are feeling the pinch most at the moment.” READ MORESinn Féin spokeswoman on social protection Louise O’Reilly predicted there would be further protests due to the cost-of-living pressures facing households. “I think people will protest because they have no option ... The people who are protesting are people who are hard-working and ordinary, decent people,” she told the same programme.“They don’t want to be on the streets. They want to be in work. They want to be going home, and sitting down and having a cup of tea, watching a bit of telly with their family in the evening. They don’t want to have to do it.”Calleary defended the Coalition’s record on cost-of-living measures, particularly on fuel and supports for hauliers and farmers, indicating that schemes rolled out in the spring would be renewed and fine tuned. “We have invested significantly towards alleviating the price burden on people, and we will continue that through the budget lens,” he said. [ Excise cuts on petrol and diesel could be extended ‘into early spring’Opens in new window ]“We will continue to support working people, and there will be a tax package in this budget for working people, because, absolutely, working people need a break. Those that get up at any time of the day to go out to work, they need a break, because they’re keeping our country going.”He confirmed his expectation that there would be a cost of disability payment initiated in the budget, but would not be drawn on its size or the specifics of when it would be paid. Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice said he acknowledged that the Government could not protect everyone totally from the impact of higher commodity prices being driven by the war in Iran. “What you have to do is try and make the cushion or the landing as soft as possible,” he said. “Middle Ireland is under pressure, in my opinion. When we had Covid, the government came to the rescue of their people at a time of need. We have got to do the same at the moment.”