Sinead O'Carroll

Especially when this conversation first came up a year ago.

huge call and I mean I know what Jane is saying of oh she didn't quite go that far but she didn't quite take it off the table either and even you know sometimes having the threat or the idea of the threat there is enough to make people work and I mean who would suffer if that money is taken away from the Rotunda it's mothers and it's babies and I the Minister did say that was her priority absolutely but I mean you know we can't just we can't punish mothers and babies because doctors are working outside their contract that's a ridiculous idea

Yeah.

And I think the issue is for the government, they're trying to say all the time that this is windfall and, you know, we can't rely on this.

And yet it's increasing time year on year and it's being baked in really as part of normal expenditure.

And I think this is coming against a backdrop of the fuel protests and people who felt, you know, some people, some sections of society who felt they weren't helped.

It's coming against the backdrop of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers.

saying in the last couple of weeks and months that last year's budget was not good enough, that it didn't help the so-called squeeze middle.

There should have been tax breaks, there should have been this, there should have been help for people.

So there's going to be huge pressure on Jack Chambers and Simon Harris to actually deliver a better budget in October.

And particularly with Simon Harris, it's going to be his first budget as finance minister.

He's the Tánaiste, he's the Fine Gael leader.

He's promising tax cuts.

And in fairness, Jack Chambers is too, which I think is a sign of the times because usually it was Fianna Fáil kind of, you know, less keen on those tax cuts than Fine Gael would be.

And they seem to be stinging off the one hymn sheet on this.

But I think there's going to be a huge amount of pressure.

And it's kind of mad to say, and I actually want to recoil when I say it, but the budget process starts in two weeks time.

I know, less, a week now with the...

But how many people are getting more than 50 hours a week?

That's something that Norma Foley actually couldn't answer, which I found wild.