Budget 2026 is an unambitious statement of intent: a commitment to keep doing business as usual. It will provide for the capitalist class while leaving working people behind yet again. Far from being bold or transformative, it is a shrug of the shoulders from a government content with failing everyone except a wealthy few.

Although the minimum wage will increase by 65c to €14.15, this still falls significantly below the living wage of €15.40. With this in mind, as well as inflation likely meaning that this extra 65c will be worth even less in real terms a year from now, it is a measly increase that will have little if any positive impact. The same is true of the €10 social welfare increases: if people are struggling now, an extra tenner (which will likely buy less in a year’s time than it does now anyway) will not go very far at all.

The approach to housing shows that we can expect more of the same and no end to the crisis. The VAT rate reduction on the sale of apartments, combined with the provision for social housing remaining limited relative to overall year-on-year delivery, indicates that the government has no plans to change up the direction that has left us with a worsening housing crisis over the past few years. Instead, they wish to leave housing in the hands of the chaotic private market, making it even more profitable for developers, refusing to take on the lead role themselves.

The VAT rate reduction for hospitality, which will fall from 13.5% to 9% from July, will benefit business owners but will do very little if anything at all to benefit workers or consumers. Trickle-down economics is a fool’s game for working people, and we should not be fooled by politicians or the rich when they claim that this ultimately benefits us all. This will not mean higher wages or cheaper prices, it will simply mean less money for the public purse and more profit in the pockets of the capitalist class.

Motorists will see an increase of about 2c at the pumps due to an increase in carbon tax. This tax, like much of the government’s seemingly green activity, wrongly aims to target consumers rather than the producers of that which leads to carbon emissions. This is not only ineffective, but it is also kicking working people while we are down. All of the talk of a just transition is just that: talk.

On paper, college fees will come down by €500 to €2,500 next year, though when you take away the spin, this is actually an increase of €500 when compared to recent years, as these fees had been temporarily brought down to €2,000.

Budget 2026 is less a plan for progress than it is a pledge to preserve the problems facing working people, while making sure to protect the profits of the capitalist class at our expense.