Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan has slammed the government for delivering a budget that fails to address the key issues for ordinary people across the state.
The Dublin MEP said:
“It’s clear that the election is firmly in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s rear-view mirror when looking at this budget.
“Despite sky high energy costs for households and small businesses, there is no measures to ease this burden.
“They have left close to a million households exposed to increases on their energy bills, and the hike in Carbon tax that’s expected to come later in the year.
“In addition, they’ve taken no action to ensure that Data Centres will pay their fair share, rather these big energy guzzling centres will pay less, while households will have to pay more to subsidise them.
“We can all see how Data Centres are making it more difficult to deliver badly needed housing, yet the budget shows that the housing crisis will only get worse under this government.
“There are no increases in targets for social, cost rental, or affordable purchase homes, and no new measures to prevent homelessness and to help people get out of emergency accommodation more quickly.
“Rather than freezing, or cutting rents, the government is spending half a billion euros next year, and the year after, in a tax cut for apartment builders, going towards apartments that are already under construction and already have purchases.
“To make this worse, the government is planning to allow landlords to hike rents even more, while lowering the standards for new build apartments.
“This budget abandons ordinary people, and fails to tackle the issues that matter most to them.
“It highlights that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are determined to look after big businesses and developers, no matter the cost to workers and families across the state.”
