Independent TD, Thomas Pringle, said the Government’s Budget 2022 is regressive and filled with missed opportunities.
Deputy Pringle said: “After an incredibly difficult 18 months, especially for those on the lowest incomes, I was sincerely optimistic about what Budget 2022 might offer and had hoped that it would recognise the incredible struggle everyone in the country had endured in the face of Covid-19.
“But here I stand on yet another Budget Day, disappointed and frustrated once again,” he said.
Deputy Pringle said the Government has again missed an opportunity for transformative change in the budget.
Rather, he said, the Budget 2022 is returning to what is seen as a “normal, pre-Covid budget”.
The deputy said: “Normal is not nearly good enough. Normal was high rates of homelessness, a crumbling health service and a country that prioritises foreign investment over the needs of its own citizens.
“This is not the normal that I want and this, in my eyes, is an incredibly regressive budget,” he said.
Deputy Pringle is expected to address Budget 2022 in more detail in the Dáil this evening, at about 7.15 pm.