Budget

Brexit has the potential to even further reduce the living standards of Ireland's most vulenerable. A sudden increase in food prices will hit lower income households hardest. Here's why.

Budget 2020 failed in its basic task to protect the vulnerable. While TDs will see their salaries rise by about €1,600 in the coming year (€30 a week) many of Ireland’s most vulnerable people will see their welfare payments remain unchanged.

Budget 2020, announced yesterday, contained a range of measures that will affect individuals, communities and society generally.  Check out our short presentation on how Budget 2020 affects you and your Community.

Budget 2020 is less than a week away.  But what is the Budget, and how will it affect you?  This short video presentation brings you through the main details about the Government Budget and when you can expect changes to affect you.  If you or your group or organisation would like to get involved in the Budgetary process, we also provide some details of when is the best time to start and how to find the information you need to make costed proposals.

The ongoing confusion regarding the funding of applications to the SEAI Deep Retrofitting pilot is disappointing, particularly as one of the headline policies in the Climate Action Plan 2019 to ensure Ireland transitions to a low carbon future is increased retrofitting.  Will Budget 2020 deliver the resources required to establish a comprehensive and ambitious retrofitting programme?

Budget 2020 is an opportunity for government to implement a number of policies which would assist Ireland in meeting its environmental targets. Social Justice Ireland's budget submission contains a number of proposals that would help meet Ireland's targets while also incentivising better behaviour by our citizens and raising hundreds of millions of euros in revenue.

Our Budget 2020 submission contains a half a billion euro investment package that would allow rural and regional Ireland needs to thrive, including in areas of tourism, rural transport, enterprise, and rural broadband.

To support carers and people with disabilities to live fulfilling lives within their communities, Government must, in the forthcoming Budget, Introduce a cost of disability payment, increase investment in disability services, including respite and personal assistant services, increase the Domiciliary Care Allowance and expand the Free Travel scheme to include people in receipt of DCA, and increase the annual Carer's Support Grant.

Healthcare services are fundamental to wellbeing - important in themselves and important to economic success in a range of ways, including improving work participation and productivity. Securing healthcare services and infrastructure is a key policy area that must be addressed urgently as part of Budget 2020.