Sinn Féin calls for emergency mini‑budget to ease cost‑of‑living crisis

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has called on the Government to introduce an emergency mini-budget to deal with the cost of living.

Doherty told his party’s Ard Fheis in Belfast that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to “stop talking down to people, stop ignoring them and start acting”.

The Government has previously announced measures worth more than €750 million in response to the fuel crisis arising out of the war in Iran, largely aimed at the transport and agriculture sectors.

The overall package also contains cuts in excise on petrol and diesel, and extensions of the fuel allowance.

Earlier this week, Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said budget 2026 “didn’t give workers a break” and that would “have to be a priority in the context of budget 2027”.

Doherty, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, said people “cannot wait” for the next budget and the measures already announced represented a “failure of leadership”.

“Over the past number of weeks, we have seen that reality spill onto the streets,” he said.

“Workers. Families. Farmers. Small businesses. Not because they want to protest but because they are not being heard and instead of listening – what did Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do?

“They talked down to people, they belittled them and then they threatened them.

“That tells you everything.

“Because they do not understand what it means to choose between heating and eating.

“They do not understand the pressure on ordinary people.”

He added: “Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael must introduce a mini-budget immediately.

“Not in October, but now, because this crisis is happening right now.

“An emergency budget that cuts the cost of electricity by delivering energy credits to families, that reduces the tax on fuel, bringing it to affordable levels.

“A social welfare package that supports people who are struggling – carers, older people and disabled people, and a tax cut that will put money back into workers’ pockets.”

Doherty further said the Government parties need to “stop delaying, stop dithering, stop siding with landlords, developers and the wealthy while workers are pushed to the brink, stop talking down to people, stop ignoring them and start acting”.

“Act now,” he said.

“Bring forward an emergency budget and give people the relief they desperately need.

“And to the hard-working people who are struggling to get by tonight I say, your anger is justified, your frustration is justified and your voice matters.”