{"id":647292,"date":"2026-10-07T08:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/647292\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T08:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:08:13","slug":"wheres-the-protest-gone-no-rows-no-riots-and-not-even-a-hup-ya-boy-ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/647292\/","title":{"rendered":"Where’s the protest gone? No rows, no riots, and not even a ‘hup ya boy ya’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Lise Hand<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST it was upon us.<\/p>\n

Budget Day arrived amid a fanfare of sad trombones, a steady downpour of rain and to an outbreak of resounding apathy.<\/p>\n

Outside the gates of Leinster House on a sodden Kildare Street, a small crowd of lads clad in the protest couture of yellow high-viz vests milled about\u2026 but wait, they weren\u2019t local gilets jeunes \u2013 or veisteanna bu\u00ed \u2013 it was only a few bored-looking garda\u00ed scrolling on their phones or looking hopefully about for any approaching horde of revolting citizenry bearing placards. Alas, none materialised.<\/p>\n

The few barriers remained propped unused against the railings. Fists remained unshaken. There was no dudgeon on display, either high or low.<\/p>\n

Inside Leinster House, the carpeted corridors of power were alive with tumbleweed. Large spiky balls of it drifted unhindered along deserted passageways.<\/p>\n

The anticipatory tension could have been cut with a pair of wooden chopsticks.<\/p>\n

Even the metaphorical kites were gone from over the roof of the place. In the weeks leading up to the unveiling of Budget 2027 by finance minister Simon Harris and public expenditure minister Jack Chambers, proposed measures would be flown cautiously from the windows of Government Buildings as ministers tested the public waters.<\/p>\n

Older members of the government are still scarred by memories of the noisy ruckus caused by riled-up protesting pensioners all the way back in 2008 after the budget unexpectedly revealed plans to curtail some medical cards for people aged 70 and over. The very people who vote in every election, and who pass grudges down through generations.<\/p>\n

No fear of any repeat of those silver army shenanigans. If this budget were a canoe, it would be settled on the riverbed of the Liffey long ago, so numerous were the leaks which sprang from it in recent days.<\/p>\n

Tax cuts. Dig-outs for childcare and energy bills. Check, check, check. Full steam ahead for a no-fuss budget.<\/p>\n

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

The ceremony<\/p>\n

Just after 1pm, the two ministers descended the steps into the D\u00e1il chamber, looking for all the world like a pair of neatly-dressed pipe-cleaners, skinny and \u2013 by finance minister standards \u2013 youthful.<\/p>\n

One of the press gallery\u2019s most formidable number-crunchers was doing a pre-calculation tune-up by remarking that the combined ages of Simon (39) and Jack (35) equalled the age of former finance minister Michael Noonan (74) when he delivered his last budget in 2017.<\/p>\n

Most of the seats were full \u2013 an increasing rarity. After the ceann comhairle began D\u00e1il proceedings with the customary prayer, Simon Harris quickly blessed himself \u2013 as well he might. He and his wife Caoimhe welcomed their third child, a baby girl, four days ago, though one suspects that it wasn\u2019t the wee snapper who was solely responsible for his somewhat haggard visage \u2013 it was more likely to be the incessant wailing of cabinet colleagues begging for a bigger slice of the \u20ac8.6 billion pie.<\/p>\n

As he began to speak, ushers fanned out along the benches, distributing the various budget documents to the TDs, who began to leaf through the pages to find the measures which either they can claim credit for, or swiftly disavow any foreknowledge of when confronted by an irate constituent.<\/p>\n

Pens, highlighters and calculators set to work.<\/p>\n

But lord above \u2013 it was a mountainous pile of snazzy, glossy bound books to plough through: Tax Policy Changes (26 pages); Economic & Fiscal Outlook (26 pages); The Budget in Brief (28 pages); two ministers\u2019 speeches (34 and 27 pages apiece). And a whopping Expenditure Report coming in at 244 pages with the weight of a small dog.<\/p>\n

The massive tome is stuffed with every facet of expenditure which can be perused at leisure, and then usefully recycled as kindling for the fire, or as a draught-excluder to keep wintry air at bay.<\/p>\n

Simon Harris had been slowed down to a speed of 33.3rpm, so everyone could follow him with ease. It was, he reiterated early and often, a budget for \u201cworking families\u201d and \u201chard-working people\u201d, for \u201cpeople who are working now\u201d and the whole idea was to bring us all \u201cto a place in which work is rewarded\u201d.<\/p>\n

When he concluded (with two minutes to spare on the countdown clock), there was applause which was carefully calibrated to be supportive and approving. Not a single yahoo, hup ya boy ya from behind him, or a single snarl from the stony-faced and silent opposition on the far side.<\/p>\n

It was the same story when Jack \u2018Torture\u2019 Chambers delivered his speech. Like the finance minister, his delivery is so even that one could balance a pint on it. Hard to believe that this is the same person decried (off the record) by an array of ministers who were aghast to find their kitchen-sink-and-all requests for more departmental funds firmly and cruelly nixed by this baby-faced assassin.<\/p>\n

Oftentimes, politicians who find themselves delivering big speeches will throw in a bit of Seamus Heaney or WB Yeats, to show they are serious people. Not Torture Chambers \u2013 he invoked former Fianna F\u00e1il taoiseach Se\u00e1n Lemass, revered by his party as an economic wizard of his day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know by theory and experience that we cannot insulate ourselves from the effects of economic decline in other states,\u201d he quoted solemnly.<\/p>\n

Well now, that had eyes snapping open all around the country.<\/p>\n

There was a muffled reaction among backbenchers behind him as he announced measures to reduce childcare costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHear hear,\u201d they whispered.<\/p>\n

Only once was there a bit of a cheer, when the minister invoked Mayo\u2019s \u201c75-year wait for All-Ireland glory this summer\u201d. A few shouts of \u201cUp Mayo\u201d and one lone \u201cUp Kerry\u201d. Up in the nosebleed seats at the back, far away from the glory of the front benches, a gloomy-looking Michael Healy-Rae became even gloomier.<\/p>\n

Chambers resumed his seat to a similar level of applause received by his colleague.<\/p>\n

And that was it. Sin \u00e9.<\/p>\n

TDs began to stream out through the various doors, to follow proceedings from their offices.<\/p>\n

The opposition rose one by one to take pot-shots. But nothing really landed with a thump.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fundamentally dishonest Budget from a fundamentally dishonest government,\u201d declared Labour\u2019s Ged Nash, sparking a bit of amusement by describing the two ministers as \u201csoundbite Harris and Jack GPT\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

Nor was Pearse Doherty impressed, claiming the budget was \u201can insult to workers\u201d and that the \u201cmajority\u201d of Irish people \u201cwon\u2019t get a sniff at\u201d the \u20ac750 tax break.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Government is hell-bent on making life harder,\u201d dubbing it a \u201cgone before you get it\u201d budget.<\/p>\n

Outside the D\u00e1il chamber, the corridors still resembled a haunted house, inhabited only by the ghosts of budgets past heading to the bar for a scatter of pints before the price went up at midnight, fighting for space at the counter among the Rabelaisian scrum of TDs and senators and their well-wishers, friends, Oireachtas staff enjoying a big day out.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin strolled down the stairs, looking fairly pleased at the lack of ructions either inside or outside the building.<\/p>\n

After all, it was a bit of a Gaybo Budget \u2013 something for everyone in the voting audience; a few million here, a few million there, spanning the gamut of beneficiaries from money for the pier at Inis O\u00edrr in Galway, to \u20ac29.6 million to the European Space Agency programme \u2013 God knows why though \u2013 in space nobody can hear you vote.<\/p>\n

The one heralded goodie that was missing was the headline-grabbing kite that 16-year-olds would receive a \u20ac100 Culture Card to pay for trips to the cinema, theatre and gigs. That was firmly placed on the m\u00e9ar fhada by mean old Torture Chambers, undoubtedly much to the chagrin of the relevant Arts and Culture minister, Fine Gael\u2019s Patrick O\u2019Donovan.<\/p>\n

A few hours after the Budget, two young fellas were strolling along Merrion Street past Leinster House.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting a Culture Card,\u201d one confidently told the other. Uh-oh. Those languishing barriers may be pressed into action yet. But the question is \u2013 will there actually be any live bodies in the Haunted House to hear them roar?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lise Hand AT LONG LAST it was upon us. Budget Day arrived amid a fanfare of sad trombones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[166626,274822,15049,93,61,60,13808,23882,229656,70],"class_list":["post-647292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-budget-2027","tag-dail-sketch","tag-dail-eireann","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-chambers","tag-leinster-house","tag-lise-hand","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}