A veteran TD has castigated his own Government over the 'punishing' Budget as a public wallop against the coalition is emergings at the ballot box today.
What we'd love to see is a Budget that's pro-growth and pro-jobs which, as a result, will help customers with the cost of living.
Rumour has it that Rachel Reeves is limbering up for November with a Budget that will make the taxman's quill squeak like a stuck pig. Property, pensions, profits, pasties - all grist to the Exchequer's mill. The Treasury is leaving no stone unturned, no pocket unpicked, no cupboard unopened. The only thing, one suspects, that remains miraculously safe from her fiscal scythe is Larry the Cat's supper.
Simon Harris said there are no coalition tensions over varying the rate of increases for jobseekers and pensioners Jobseekers allowance should not increase at the same rate as other social welfare payments, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said, who added that he does not detect tension within Government on social welfare increases. Senior Government figures have signalled the end of one-off cost-of-living reliefs in next month's Budget on October 7. Instead, they've promised an increased focus on infrastructure and addressing child poverty.
The UK's public finances are deteriorating at speed and history shows that when the Treasury faces a fiscal crunch, pensioners are treated as low-hanging fruit. From post-war retrenchment to the stealth pension taxes of the 1990s and the allowance freezes of the past decade, successive governments have repeatedly tapped retirement savings to fill the gap. They typically see pensions as 'low hanging fruit', and there's every reason to expect a repeat in November.
The plan "seeks to bamboozle with the budget to disguise the paucity of both commitments and detail," said the Social Democrats' spokesman on public expenditure, Cian O'Callaghan.
"While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed."
The city has been experiencing a structural deficit, projected to peak at nearly $2 million in 2029 or $6 million in 2035 due to growing pension liabilities and unfunded capital projects.
Council Member Robert Holden has criticized Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Finance Chair Justin Brannan for not allocating extra funds for veterans in the FY2026 Budget, despite increased funding for other city services.
