Living with Ireland's centrist budget

I watched Ireland’s Budget being dissected last Tuesday and figured out it means getting a smaller pizza for the next year. That will be good for my diet and this simple downshifting will keep me centred.

One of the reasons I will cut back on the size of Irish pizza is because I need to offset the rise in prices due to the increase in the minimum wage in the budget.

From a helicopter view, our family did ok with the reductions in tax paid by my wife and the increase in the weekly pension that I get. I reckon much of the Irish budget gets invested into helping reduce the infrastructure backlog and perhaps helps struggling schools and hospitals. I don’t think the October budget does much to help households manage the cost that Trump has levied on the world through his war on Iran and his tarrifs.

I don’t know what to make of the new Irish savings and investment scheme. It aims to encourage Irish people to put their €140 billion of savings into investments rather than simply leaving them in bank accounts earning a pittance in interest. Similar schemes have been introduced in Europe with mixed results. We already have investments with Zurich and they’re getting better than 6% annual interest.

I think Ireland should look in the mirror and reconsider the amount spent for defence and security. The headline rise in the defence budget is 9 per cent, but this is from an exceptionally low base and comes at a moment when new types of threats from hostile actors are emerging and expectations from European partners are rising. Ireland needs anti-drone capability. The Irish Navy needs a few more ships capable of shadowing Russian vessels. The Air Corps needs multiengine aircraft that can loiter for more than eight hours while performing electronic surveillance.

There is a lot of cross-talk about how Ireland is able to soak up billions in multinational tax receipts and to publish a very centrist budget. We’re probably sitting in a good place because our household is able to change some of our eating habits, change out some of our car journeys with public transport, and dial down the home heating a few degrees this winter.

We are astride the politics of centrism. I’d rather a more ambitious approach by government, perhaps one that will return me to a full-sized pizza at dinner.