Sinn Féin has pledged to abolish the universal social charge (USC) for average workers, reduce childcare costs to €10 per day, and abolish the TV licence, as part of its alternative budget.
The party said it will “undo the damage” of previous governments, while ramping up public spending.
The document, published on Thursday, set outs the party’s budget plans, with a lot of focus on measures for families in an attempt to reduce everyday costs.
Pearse Doherty, the party’s finance spokesman, said it is a budget package of €12.4 billion, including €7.3 billion of new measures.
“In this document you’re not going to see bike shelters for €336,000. You’re not going to see security huts for €1.4 million and you’re not going to see runaway projects like the Children’s Hospital, costing us now €2.2 billion,” he said.
“That happens under [Minister for Public Expenditure] Paschal Donohoe and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“Sinn Féin knows that your money needs to be invested and needs to be spent wisely.”
Launching the 57-page plan at the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin, Mr Doherty said it includes an additional €4 billion of capital investment.
“As we know that the Government have failed to meet their own capital investment targets over the last number of years, targets that they set out.
“The National Development Plan set out annual targets and they have been missed every year. The under-investment from those missed targets is approximately €7.6 billion in capital investment over the last four years alone.”
As part of their cost-of-living package, the party said they will provide €450 electricity credits to householders; a double child benefit payment in October and December; reverse excise duty on petrol and diesel; reduce student fees by €1,500 and abolish the TV licence.
Nothing frustrates people more than seeing public money go to waste.
From the bike shed to the Children’s Hospital, it's always someone else’s fault. Now we can add the €1.49m security hut to the list. This Gov continues to prove its incompetence in spending taxpayers' money. pic.twitter.com/EyvV18i4rw— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 26, 2024
The party said it will reduce childcare costs for parents to €10 a day in centre-based care and Tusla registered childminders, rolling out fully to childminders thereafter, at a cost of €35 million.
As part of its healthcare package, the party said it would also reduce the cost of medicine by lowering the maximum monthly drugs payments by households from €80 to €50, and reduce prescription charges and extend the medical card to 150,000 additional people.
The party said it would also put €1 billion of the Apple tax money into a community fund to invest in working-class communities.
As part of the party’s alternative budget plan, it said it will increase the minimum wage by €1.10 and increase child benefit by €10, at a cost of €152.60 million.
The party said it would also provide funding for 1,000 garda recruits in 2025 and increase the garda trainee allowance of 30 per cent.
It said it would also tax wealth emissions via a levy on private jets, which would raise €18 million.
Mr Doherty said his party is committed to abolishing the USC on the first €45,000 that every worker in the State earns.
Sinn Féin’s alternative budget would deliver immediate and long lasting benefits to workers and families and help ordinary people struggling with the cost of living.
You can see our fully-costed budget at https://t.co/Pjc1bNOqnX pic.twitter.com/nwtX2FPbgW— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 26, 2024
“The alternative budget process allows us to show how we would invest in the future.
“This is a fully costed set of budget proposals, and no other opposition party provides the level of detail for voters.”
Mr Doherty accused the Government of failing to provide the projected surplus for the year.
The Donegal TD said it will be “quite substantial”, and could be as much as €8 billion.
“This is the first time that we’ve ever gone into an alternative budget where the Government has not given or published what the expected surplus is,” he added.
“They have refused to provide any information in relation to what’s called the general government balance, which is the projected surplus measure.
“This is unheard of. In my view, I think it’s anti-democratic. It’s not acceptable. But what they have said is they expected the surplus in the region of about €6 billion.
“We know that that figure is no longer accurate, because that was before we seen the most recent tax receipts, where they expected an increase of tax receipts compared to next year.
“We’re already €2 billion ahead of that, so therefore the service will go up and if that trend is continued for the remainder of the year, then it will go up even further.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said their budget plan is fully costed and presents the “necessary investments” for the country.
She said that many people are “desperate” for change.
“We have 14,000 people in emergency accommodation, more than 4,000 of those are children. That’s pretty desperate,” she added.
“Our young people are voting with their feet. They’re leaving. They’re in Toronto and Perth and Boston, and many who are away don’t have any real prospect of coming back.
“So we are in desperate need of a change of government. We are very clear that we have to be setting out choices for people.
“We have to make clear to people that we live in the real world, that unlike the Government, we’re not sloppy and negligent with public money, that we know the value of a euro.
“We certainly know the value of €336,000 and €1.5 million, and we recognise that in areas of childcare, health and cost of living, things need to change.”
