Members of the Opposition have been reacting to today's Budget announcements.
Fianna Fáil's Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath criticised many aspects of Minister Noonan's speech.
He said the Finance Minister should have introduced a voluntary opt-in PRSI scheme for the self-employed, and said there was nothing on rent certainty announced.
He accused the Government of a "€2.4bn raid" from current and future pensions, suggesting that pensioners "will not be fooled and "will remember the harsh measures this Government implemented".
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty said it "is a nonsense for anyone on the government benches to claim that this budget is a budget with families and small businesses in mind.
"It is budget for the elites, for multi-nationals and high earners. It is anti-sustainable growth, it is anti-investment, and its anti-public services," he added, also suggesting that it is 'fiscally reckless'.
Mary Lou McDonald, deputy leader of Sinn Féin, spoke to George Hook this evening. She argued "there's no doubt people on higher incomes will get a cash bonanza from this Government. But I would suggest to you the bubble bursts once you enter an Accident & Emergency room; if you have a child or a loved one with a disability or relies on services; or if at any stage you or anybody belonging to you ends up on a social housing list, or ends up homeless.
"The really significant downside of today's announcement is a complete lack of any substantial investment in housing, and a complete lack of any investment in health, and allowing a number of very very damaging cuts to continue within the system":
Renua Ireland has criticised the Government's decision to increase child-benefit by €5 per child, which it describes as "a tokenistic measure which serves no real strategic purpose".
"This is unfortunate for if we are looking for indications of real progressivity in a budget how we reform our child-care system is a key indicator," party leader Lucinda Creighton said.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said, "this Government has no interest in transforming our economy to meet the sustainability challenges of our time. Everything they are doing is bringing us away from the renewable, efficient, circular and natural economy that could fit our country so well.
"They have learnt nothing from the boom and bust, and done nothing to reform how public money is spent. They are trying to win the election by bribing people with the return of some of their own money. Have we learnt nothing at all?" he added.
Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit criticised the "very small" additional funding for social housing and the health service, stating they were “totally inadequate and tokenistic and would guarantee that the crisis in housing and in our hospitals would be worse again in a year’s time”.
Deputy Boyd Barrett also said it was “disgraceful” that jobseekers, lone parents and carers were to see no increase in their basic weekly payments.
The Social Democrats said it is "absolutley astounding to see only €18m new expenditure measures allocated for health", and that "even more astonishing is zero provision for Mental Health Services despite a youth suicide rate that's 2.5 times the EU average".
