‘GIVEAWAY’ BUDGET 2025 FAILS TO ADDRESS ROOT CAUSES OF POVERTY

A focus on short-term fixes and giveaways, with an eye to the impending General Election, means Budget 2025 has failed to deliver the sustained measures needed to tackle the root causes and structural nature of poverty, the European Anti-Poverty Network said in response to today’s Budget announcement.

“Budget 2025, the last budget of the current Government, should have been one final opportunity to leave a lasting legacy when it comes to addressing poverty and inequality in Ireland. Instead, giveaways were prioritised with an eye to the looming General Election. We don’t need any more band-aids in the form of short-term or one-off measures. We need to see real political leadership and commitment to tackling the underlying root causes of poverty and social exclusion,” said Paul Ginnell, Director of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland.

Income Adequacy

“A big priority for us was to see Budget 2025 make real steps towards ensuring everyone has an adequate income to live with dignity and participate fully in society. We needed to see real progress towards decent, liveable wages, and social welfare supports set at an adequate level to meet the cost of living. The Government hasn’t done anywhere near enough on this front,” said Mr Ginnell.

“While the 80 cents per hour increase to the minimum wage is welcome, €13.50 is significantly less than the €14.75 per hour recommended by the Living Wage Technical Group. This is the amount needed for a minimum acceptable standard of living,” Mr Ginnell continued.

“The social protection package for Budget 2025 has been described as the largest in the history of the State. However, the core welfare rates increase of €12 per week falls significantly short of the €20 increase needed in order to restore their real value to 2020 levels, never mind making any real progress toward providing people with an adequate income.” Mr Ginnell said.

“We are disappointed there was no mention of the long-anticipated benchmarking approach for working age social welfare payments. Today’s announced increases in core rates are welcome, if insufficient, but we need to see a long-term approach to benchmarking all social protection rates and pensions against a level that is adequate to lift people above the poverty line and provide them with a Minimum Essential Standard of Living,” Mr Ginnell continued.

Child Poverty

“Steps towards tackling child poverty, announced in today’s Budget, are to be welcomed, such as increased investment in childcare, extension of the Free Schoolbooks initiative to transition and senior cycle pupils, and some of the relevant lump sum payments for parents and families. However, in order to make real progress on reducing child poverty, we also needed to see the Increase for a Qualified Child go up by €6 per week for children under 12 and €15 per week for children aged 12 years and over. The €100 one off lump sum payment per child to recipients is a poor substitute for the underwhelming €4 and €8 respectively,” said Mr Ginnell.

“If the Government is serious about addressing child poverty it must recognise that child poverty is above all about children growing up in families and communities experiencing poverty. That is why it is crucial that everyone has an adequate income that is sufficient to live with dignity and take a full part in society. More needs to be done to support these families out of poverty, and to raise living standards for the groups and communities most likely to face poverty and disadvantage,” Mr Ginnell continued.

Taxation

“Much has been made of how the Budget’s tax cuts will leave people better off. We believe a bigger concern should be ‘who will be better off?’. Any tax cuts – essentially, measures that reduce tax revenue – that disproportionately benefit higher income households are counter-productive. Our tax system should be as progressive as possible. Tax revenue is essential for investing in quality public services and supports, such as health, housing, education, transport, childcare, social care, and social protection. We need to maintain a sustainable tax base and not hollow it out,” Mr Ginnell concluded.

ENDS

Contact: Tim Hanley, Policy and Communications Officer: tim.hanley@eapn.ie

NOTES

• Spokespersons are available for interview.
• The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland is a network of 160 local, regional and national anti-poverty organisations and individuals. It is the Irish national network of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), which links groups fighting for the eradication of poverty across Europe. The Mission of EAPN Ireland is: ‘To put the eradication of poverty at the top of the Irish and European policy agenda and empower groups working to end poverty to understand and influence policy-making.’
• The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 aims to reduce the national consistent poverty rate to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive States in the EU by 2025.
• The CSO SILC 2023 (Survey on Income and Living Conditions) showed that while the at risk of poverty rate and consistent poverty rate have decreased since 2022, the number of people living in enforced deprivation continued to increase.
  • Over 559,000 people or 10.6% of the population were at risk of poverty in 2023. When adjusted for inflation, 13.6% of people were at risk of poverty in 2023 compared with 12.5% in 2022.
  • More than 913,000 people or 17.3% of the population experienced enforced deprivation in 2023, up significantly from 16.6% in 2022 and 13.7% in 2021.
  • More than 190,000 people, or 3.6% of the population, were living in consistent poverty. The consistent poverty rate was highest among people unable to work due to long-standing health problems (16.5%). One in five (20.2%) people in consistent poverty were in work.
• Data from the Vincentian MESL Research Centre shows that an adjustment of €20 was needed to restore the real value of core working age payments to 2020, and to make real progress toward providing people with income adequacy. The data also shows that an increase of the Qualified Child Payment by €6 per week for children under 12 and €15 per week for children 12 years of age and over is needed in order to make progress on reducing child poverty. The cost of the basket of goods needed to ensure Minimum Essential Standard of Living has risen by 16.8% between March 2020 to March 2024.