‘People will have a really tough winter’ - Fears for Irish pensioners as Budget Day looms

Despite a cost-of-living crisis, the Government has no plans to include one-off payments in Budget 2026

A Sinn Féin TD has expressed concern for Irish pensioners as the Government looks set not to include any one-off payments in the upcoming Budget.

Last year, pensioners receiving the Living Alone Allowance received a once-off lump sum of €200. Meanwhile, those on the Fuel Allowance received a €300 lump sum payment.

As well as that, any individuals receiving the Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension, or the Carer’s Support Grant were given a €400 one-off payment.

All households, including pensioners, were also provided with an energy credit of €250, which was paid in two instalments of €125 each.

It is understood that no such payments will be repeated as part of Budget 2026.

However, Deputy Rose Conway-Wash, who is the Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, believes that the Government simply “has to” repeat such one-off payments.

Speaking on Virgin Media’s Tonight Show on Tuesday night, Deputy Conway-Walsh said the Government is in “complete denial that we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis.”

She continued: [There are] people who get tax relief on huge pensions while you have pensioners who are struggling on the ground, struggling for transport, struggling to make ends meet and struggling to put their heat on.”

Deputy Conway-Walsh concluded by saying that “the only certainty is that people will have a really tough winter under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”

Fianna Fáil TD Shane Moynihan, who was also appearing on the programme, responded by saying that there were more pensioners receiving the Fuel Allowance than ever before.

He added that payments to pensioners have been consistently increased over the past five years and that retrofit grants have been made available so that people can bring down their energy costs.

“I think it’s indigenous to suggest that nothing has been done to help these people over the past five years,” Deputy Moynihan concluded.

In recent days, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Tánasite Simon Harris have both spoken out against including one-off payments in this year’s Budget, with the latter stating that it was “not a good way to run a country.”

Minister Donohoe, along with Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, will present the Budget to Dáil Éireann on October 7.