In advance of Minister for Finance Jack Chambers and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe setting out Budget 2025 on Tuesday, The Irish Times spoke to a pensioner, a carer, a renter, a landlord and a wheelchair user to hear what they would like to be announced.
Pensioner: ‘It was all right before my husband died. On my own, it is a struggle’
Teresa O’Callaghan (66), who lives alone just outside Claremorris, Co Mayo, would like the Government to increase the State pension, provide more help with fuel costs, bring better public transport to rural areas and raise investment in the health service.
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The pensioner was a full-time carer for her late husband, Charles, until his death some years ago and she finds life “kind of lonely” now.
“Alone [the older people’s charity] is my lifeline. They call me every morning, chat with me and help organise things if I need them to,” O’Callaghan says.
“I live in the countryside and there’s not great bus services. There’s just one, the Local Link bus, which goes into Ballyhaunis on a Friday. But if I want to go into town at another time I am dependent on getting a lift or a taxi and that’s €30 for the trip into Claremorris or €40 in and out to Ballyhaunis.”
O’Callaghan’s entire income, between €290.50 and €323.50 per week, comprises the State pension (€266), the living alone allowance (€22) and telephone allowance (€2.50), and between September and April she also gets the €33 per week fuel allowance.
“The cost of living, it was all right before my husband died. We had his pension and I got the carers allowance. But now, on my own, it is a struggle. I still have to pay the same bills,” she says.
“Coming into the winter I am worried. I wake up now very cold – my feet and fingers are a lot colder. An increase in the fuel allowance is very important. If you haven’t a warm body, how can you function?
“Look at the cost of heating oil. If I was to fill the tank that’s €1,200. Even to buy a bag of coal is €30 if I want to light the stove. Then I have to get firelighters, kindling. I have the [prepay] meter for the electricity and that’s gone from about €30 a week to €40.
“I was diagnosed diabetic in May so I have to watch what I am eating. The food I need to be eating is gone sky-high. You get eggs one week and it’s going up 20 cent the next and then 40 cent.”
Other expenses include property tax, deducted weekly from her pension, and her mobile phone, a necessity as she has “a lot of appointments” to organise.
O’Callaghan spent 10 nights in Galway University Hospital in May, six of them on a trolley. After being discharged, she had nobody available to bring her home and had to pay more than €150 for a taxi. She would like a support for transport to get vulnerable people home from hospital and also suggests schoolbuses could provide public transport in rural areas while children are in class. (Kitty Holland)
Carer: ‘We have enough for the moment, but if anything ever happened… it would be fairly impossible’
Nicola Relihan became a full-time, at-home carer when she finally brought her son Tadgh back from hospital in June, 11 months after he was born.
Tadgh and his twin brother Oisín were born with myotubular myopathy, a severe congenital muscle disease that causes muscle weakness as well as feeding and breathing difficulties. Oisín died in April, having spent the entirety of his short life in hospital.
After a draining and difficult year, Relihan (28) and her husband Danny (33) are back at home in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, where they are supported by a team of nurses who help with Tadgh’s care.
One of Relihan’s main hopes for Budget 2025 is a commitment from the Government to tackle waiting lists – an issue having a real-time impact on Tadgh.
“Our biggest worry with regards to support at the moment would be the fact that [Tadgh] hasn’t really received much occupational or physiotherapy since coming home. He’s a big, big risk for developing scoliosis… we haven’t had any occupational therapy, and it doesn’t look like we really will,” she says.
“He had a check-up at CUH two weeks ago, and they did agree with us that his spine is more curved now than it was [previously].”
Tadgh has also been referred for speech and language therapy – but has yet to see a therapist since coming home.
Relihan and her husband have considered paying for private therapy. “You know, they’re essential therapies. They should just be readily available.”
She is also hoping that Budget 2025 might offer some respite from full-time caring. Since bringing Tadgh home, she has had little time to herself.
“We actually very rarely get to leave the house,” she says. “And you’re nervous about people coming to see [Tadgh], in case they’re sick or they pass anything on to him, so you’re not really socialising as much as you’d like to.”
And while she stresses that it is “fantastic” to have her son home, and to have the support of nurses and charities like Jack and Jill and LauraLynn, being a carer can be “isolating”.
Representative group Family Carers Ireland notes in its pre-budget submission: “It is deeply concerning that family carers have no entitlement to respite or a break from their caring role, meaning many full-time carers care 365 days a year without a break.”
It says all full-time family carers should have a right “to regular and appropriate respite breaks needed to sustain a healthy balance between caring and their personal wellbeing”.
Relihan, Budget 2025 comes amid a somewhat precarious financial outlook. Tadgh’s condition might necessitate a move to a more suitable house, or more adaptations to their current home, or maybe a new vehicle.
“With me being on carer’s allowance and domiciliary [care allowance] now, we have enough for the moment, but if anything ever happened or we did need to move house, it would be fairly impossible,” she says. “We got gifted a disability van, but it’s really old. If we ever wanted to upgrade, like, we would never be able to afford a newer one. They’re crazy expensive.” (Fiachra Gallagher)
Renter: ‘I think what we’ve seen is breadcrumbs from previous Government budgets’
Ross Boyd (25), from Blanchardstown in Dublin, says the prospect of renting in the capital “never felt possible or realistic”.
Now living in Cork, he pays about €900 per month for a student bed near University College Cork (UCC).
“I had to work and save for multiple years just to afford this one year,” he says.
Due to the “overwhelming” prices being sought in Dublin, Boyd lived at home with his parents until now, saving for the last three years to study a master’s in sociology at UCC at a cost of more than €6,500 for an academic year.
“It’s sad because I’m making friends and I’m trying to build a bit of a life here but knowing it’s only temporary is a bit draining, to know I can only do so much. But the cost of living is so high that it doesn’t feel possible,” he adds.
Groceries and utilities bring his monthly expenses to about €1,200, which he funds primarily through his disability allowance, topping it up with his savings. “I just feel fortunate to have a place and independence, but it’s a limited feeling to know I’ve had to work so many years just to be able to do that,” he says.
Boyd, who has autism, described living in Ireland in his 20s as “draining” overall, with friends emigrating in droves. He feels as though he is “next in line”.
Although his expectations are far from great, he says the budget could be an opportunity to repair a social contract that many younger people in Ireland, the vast majority of whom are renters or are living at home with parents, feel is broken.
“I’m not very hopeful. I think what we’ve seen is breadcrumbs from previous government budgets but my local TD is the Minister for Finance and I hope he does more to listen to young people,” he says, adding that the last few budgets “haven’t really helped” his circumstances.
While there have been increases to his disability allowance in recent years, which is currently his only form of income while he focuses on his studies, he says these have not “really caught up to inflation” with the cost of living “very challenging”.
Alongside cost-of-living measures, he would like to see increased funding for affordable housing “that’s actually affordable” and that provision of student accommodation be made a priority. He believes a rental payment for non-working students would help people like him, those who have not received financial assistance from parents, but have saved to be able to move and focus on their studies. (Jack White)
Landlord: ‘A lot of my friends who got into property at the same time have got out’
Mary Conway has been renting out properties since 1996, but says being a landlord in Ireland has never been more challenging than in recent years.
“A lot of my friends who got into property at the same time have got out,” Conway says, adding her belief that Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) rules and rising costs have been at the heart of the exodus.
“It’s just become too cumbersome. Everything has become out of reach for everybody… It’s been tough.”
Conway has significantly reduced the number of properties she owns and is in the process of leaving the market entirely.
Since becoming chair of the Irish Property Owners’ Association (IPOA) in 2015, and while working as an estate agent, she has heard from countless landlords who are getting out of the business as their mortgage repayments are no longer covered by rental income alone.
“An awful lot of landlords are afraid to come out and say anything,” she says. “They don’t want to put up their hand and say they’re a landlord and they don’t want to admit that they’re in financial trouble. One owner that I work with told me she wouldn’t be able to afford €400 for a replacement washing machine if something happens.”
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Conway has been unable to offset “huge amounts” of money spent on successive mortgage interest rate increases in recent years, saying she is “stuck” in an RPZ, unable to raise rents to absorb increased costs.
She covers her tenants’ electricity and gas costs, which means she has been “squeezed even more” in recent years due to rising utility bills.
“By the time my tax and everything is paid, there’s pretty much nothing there,” she says.
Conway believes more landlords are losing money than ever before, most of whom are stuck with “legacy rents”. She says there are “misconceptions” that the majority of landlords are wealthy.
She is not expecting much from Budget 2025 for landlords, as previous years and measures have left much to be desired. She believes targeted measures that might help, such as further increases in tax breaks, could be seen as “politically incorrect”.
“What we got last year was €600 in tax breaks a year per landlord and €800 next year but you have to keep the property for four years. That’s not going to incentivise any landlord, they’re not going to stay for €600,” she adds.
She believes it is too late to reverse the trend of landlords leaving the market. “The problem is that landlords are part of the solution but they’re being seen as part of the problem.”
Wheelchair user: ‘It’s an uphill struggle all the time for disabled people’
Michelle O’Shea (49), who has mild cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user, lives with her mother, Marian O’Shea (85), in the family home in Golden, Co Tipperary.
She would like the budget to help with the cost of living, recognition of the additional costs associated with being disabled, increased funding to organisations like the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) and better rural public transport.
“My sister lives across the road. I have good family supports,” she says. “But I find it very difficult to survive on the [disability] allowance with the costs going up. I would love the Government, anyone in it, to try and live on €232 a week. It’s an uphill struggle every week when I go shopping.”
O’Shea’s sole income is the €232 a week disability allowance. Her mother receives €276 a week plus, between September and April, a €33 weekly fuel allowance.
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“When I go shopping in Lidl or Aldi or Dunnes Stores, I have to budget carefully each week. I have to go for the cheap items – lots of beans and rice. It’s the same when I buy clothes – it’s the bargain rail in Penney’s or Dunnes,” she says. “Sometimes there are things I would love to get, like for a family occasion, but I can’t. How would Government people feel living like this? It’s an uphill struggle all the time for disabled people.”
As a wheelchair user, O’Shea feels the cold more so than people who are ambulatory.
“The cost of heating is too much. We have the cost of fuel, electricity. A bag of coal is over €30, and a bail of briquettes is €9. There needs to be more help with that,” she says. “All the time, a few days before I get my wages [disability allowance] I have only a few euro left. I am not working, cannot get work, so can’t afford those things like going out to see a film or to a restaurant.”
She feels isolated in rural Tipperary and dislikes asking friends or family for lifts.
“I live in the country and there is no bus passing my door with wheelchair-access. The nearest town is Clonmel. I can’t drive so I depend on the IWA bus service from Tipp town. The bus service is great but last year the drivers had to go on strike to get pay parity with public-sector workers. We were without our bus and the workers still need pay parity. I’d like to see pay parity for all IWA staff. Without them I would have no choice but to just not get out,” she says.
“I am a happy-go-lucky person, but I do get depressed sometimes. It’s IWA that keeps me going. They are a fantastic bunch.” (Kitty Holland)
Will Budget 2025 be like a Toy Show giveaway?
Teacher: ‘I’ll be honest, there’s not much left over – it’s simply not there’
Aisling Hughes (28) never imagined that she’d still be living with her mother several years into her career as a secondary schoolteacher.
“It’s not ideal,” she says. ‘We get on like a house on fire, don’t get me wrong ... but the idea of owning or affording my own place just isn’t realistic.”
Hughes, who teachers home economics and religion at Our Lady’s Secondary School, Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, has been teaching for about six years.
She estimates that her annual earnings are around €55,000 on a basic salary scale that ranges from about €44,000 to €80,000 over a teaching career.
Hughes says she is lucky, in many ways – her monthly rent is just €300 a month. When she factors in the cost of a car loan (another €300 a month), fuel costs and bills for groceries, broadband, insurance and other costs, however, she struggles to makes ends meet.
“I’ll be honest, there’s not much left over – it’s simply not there,” she says. “There’s nothing for a rainy day. Our pay was decimated after the 2011 spending cuts. It hasn’t recovered.”
She recently inquired with the banks about getting a mortgage and was told she would need to show save about €1,020 a month for six months.
“It’s just not possible,” she says.
Another frustration, she says, is people outside the profession chiding teachers on the perks of the job: a public sector, good money, long holidays. “The classic one is the ‘what are the three best things about teaching? June, July and August’,” she says.
“The reality is, they have no idea how intense the job is ... the amount of planning that goes into lessons; preparing for open nights parent-teacher meetings; it’s immense – and you’re absolutely exhausted by the end of the week.”
In next week’s Budget, Hughes would like to see measures to ease the cost of living.
She would also like to see decisive moves to make housing more affordable – especially for single people.
In addition, she points to a need to invest more in education such as extending free schoolbooks to senior cycle, access to better technology and school facilities.
“Really, I wish that’d say, ‘let’s make Budget 2025 address the issue of access to affordable housing,” she says. “We’ll see.” (Carl O’Brien)
Farmer: ‘I would like to see more certainty on our income and VAT reductions’
Farmer William Cassidy is milking 110 cows in his family farm outside Athy in Co Kildare. He went into dairying full-time in 2018. Before that his farm was mixed with tillage, sucklers and sheep.
Mr Cassidy has four children between the ages of seven and 14. He hopes one of them will take over the farm some day, but, like most farmers, he worries about succession.
He was one of thousand of farmers who turned up at two open days hosted by Tirlán, one of the country’s largest co-operatives with 11,500 members.
“From a budgetary point of view, there is a huge amount of uncertainty in farming at the moment and that needs to be turned into certainty on so many levels – on price, on climate and on the green objectives,” he says.
“We need to bring certainty into it. I see Minster (for Agriculture Charlie) McConalogue, his lovely buzzword is a generational review and how to get the next generation into farming. I can tell you that there is only one thing that will get them into farming and that is income.
“I would like to see more certainty on our income and VAT reductions. I have been approved for a grant to put up solar panels, but I don’t get the credits for that. It’s the energy sector that does.
“It is a complete necessity that this is changed. It is the energy sector that gets the carbon sector. It is utterly ludicrous. I’m going to spent about €50,000 on those. I know I’m going to get a grant, but down the road, the credits for that are going to the energy sector. That has to change.” (Ronan McGreevy)
