Budget 2024: Cork people have their say on the impact of the budget

FOLLOWING Tuesday’s budget announcement, many have been left feeling underwhelmed.

This was certainly the case when The Echo spoke to the people of Cork yesterday, with many Corkonians sharing that Budget 2024 has done little to sway their votes for the election.

Pensions, rent, the high cost of living and housing were among to key topics that stood out most for those we spoke to.

While some believed that the three €150 once-off electricity credits were not sufficient to reflect the high cost of gas and energy bills, others welcomed the announcement, saying: “It’s better than nothing. I’ll take any bit I can get.”

One shopper in Blackpool Shopping Centre expressed concern over the planned government spending and said she worried for the younger generation who are finding it difficult to climb the property ladder.

“I am just looking ahead to my own adult children and whether they will be able to buy themselves a house. I have one who is renting up in Dublin, where it is very expensive, another who is moving home to live with us, and the youngest is renting but is thinking of going abroad.”

The Cork woman continued: “There are so many people their age leaving the country, and they should be able to buy their own property. With the way things are, they won’t be able to for some time, unless we help them. I think there should have been more given to the future generation.”

The older population was also a major concern for Cork, with some suggesting that not enough had been done for pensioners facing into the colder winter months.

A high number of those we spoke to said they also chose to avoid the budget proceedings this year, saying that with the ongoing cost of living crisis, they “didn’t want to be left feeling more deflated,” following the announcement.

Here is what the people of Cork had to say about Budget 2024.

Teresa Murphy, Farranree: What they should do is look after the people that need it first. There are children that can’t get places in schools and some schools are closing down with no funding. The announcements for children was about time. It is a bit late, but at least they are doing something. I have no intentions of voting for them in the next election, and that budget on Tuesday hasn’t persuaded me otherwise.

Martin O’Sullivan, Mitchelstown: I am going to have an extra €12 more in my pension now, so I am quite happy with that. I’m not sure if the three €150 payments for electricity were enough given the price of everything at the minute, and prices haven’t come down any bit since. I am a member of the Irish Wheelchair Association and overall I was happy enough with the budget that they announced on Tuesday.

Majella Gould, Kerry Pike: The cost of living is gone so high, interest rates have gone so high, diesel and petrol has gone so high, and rent has gone so high. Even the price of a food shop now, if you go into Dunnes and have two small bags of shopping you don’t come back with much from your €100. We were all expecting this to be the budget that persuaded us all to vote for them in the elections, but I don’t think it was that. It wasn’t a giveaway budget.

Tony Hogan, Fair Hill: The €12 for pensioners, as I heard someone say on the radio this morning, that is probably only the cost of a small bag of coal a month. So, if you look at it that way, it’s not a whole lot. It is not enough, I think anyway. With the cost of living the way that it is, everything is so expensive. In the grand scheme of things and with the cost of living the way that it is, €12 is not a lot of money at all for pensioners.

Jim Fitzgerald, North Cork: €12 in the pension won’t be much good to people, for pensioners or for people that are living alone.

They should have spread things out for the people a good bit more in the budget. Other than that, I think the landlords have quite enough, the poor renters got nothing on Tuesday. The landlords actually got more than them, I would say. The people that really needed it, just didn’t get it.

Sally Crowley, northside: I felt sorry for the pensioners. It was only a €12 rise and that is not going to make a difference to anyone on the pension. I also think they forgot about people with disabilities. It was good that some people got a boost. I was happy to see that vulnerable people and those who get the fuel allowance are getting bonuses before Christmas, but it is only like they were throwing people crumbs.