What do people really want to see in Budget 2027?

After weeks of speculation and kite-flying, Budget day has finally arrived.

An overall package of around €8.5 billion will be unveiled by Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers this afternoon.

Measures to reduce childcare costs, increase social welfare payments and tackle the cost of living are among some of the announcements expected, but what do people really want to see in today's Budget?

Childcare concerns

Another week is under way for pre-schoolers in the rural village of Caltra in east Galway, where childcare places are in short supply.

The local facility, Caltra Community Playgroup, offers free Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) funded playschool places for three hours a day, Monday to Friday.

In recent years, the service has also expanded to offer parents additional childcare hours, until 2pm each day, but calls for a full-day service have amplified.

"There is great demand," said Helen Melia, who has been manager of Caltra Community Playgroup for the last decade.

"I still get phone calls constantly, looking for full-day care, and unfortunately, at the minute, we don't have that facility."

Alongside local parents and the community playgroup committee, Ms Melia has been trying to secure Government funding for a new full-day crèche facility.

"We've been ready, shovel ready now for over a year and we're just waiting to try and get funding for that project. Torturous would be what I would think of straight away.

"It has been a long time and a lot of effort has gone in with no results that we feel as of yet."

For Ms Melia, moves to cap monthly childcare fees in Budget 2027 will be welcome but will mean little without the facilities that can cater for the growing childcare demands in the area.

"Without spaces, reducing cost is not going to really make much of a difference," she said.

Melissa Kelly, a veterinary sales manager from the nearby village of Killasolan, Mountbellew, is on maternity leave following the birth of her son Oisin 12 weeks ago.

For the mother of two, the funding of community childcare facilities in rural areas is a Budget priority.

"My eldest, a three-year-old, has been on waiting lists since she was a couple of months old, in several of the créches around the place, and they've all just told me no.

"They still have no availability for her. The same then, with my 12-week-old, [they] told me they wouldn't have a place for him when he was a year old.

After securing an ECCE-funded playschool space for her three-year-old daughter Charlotte in Caltra Community Playgroup earlier this year, Ms Kelly found herself having to make a tough decision.

"She was due to start playschool in September. I couldn't send her to playschool because there was nobody to pick her up at 2 o'clock, unless I was to stay off and not go back to work, which I said isn't an option.

"I have to go back to work, I have to return to work. So she has to stay with the childminder for another year," she said.

"I'm lucky in a sense that I have a childminder to look after her, but it's still not the point.

"There should be an option there. The facility should be there. It's there in the cities. It's just us in rural Ireland that are being left behind."

While childcare dominated concerns among young families, rising fuel costs remained a major issue for households and businesses.

Fuel price rises

A small business owner with two vans on the road, Adrian Gannon of Gannon Chimney Cleaning in Athlone, wants to see fuel prices addressed.

"Fuel at the minute is just phenomenal for us," he said. "We’re probably up 30% or 35%, from an average of €300 a week to €430, €440. I put up prices this year for the first time in a long time and people just look at you. We have no choice."

The cost of living and escalating price of home heating oil also appears to have driven customer demand for Mr Gannon’s professional chimney cleaning service.

"I possibly think that we are busier at the minute because the younger generation that would turn on the oil when they come home in the evening are seeing that they're not able to afford to put oil in their tanks.

"So we're a little bit busier because we have that generation coming back in. I'll always have older customers that you don't see for years and I see them back this year."

Read more: Latest Budget 2027 stories

Cost of living worries

Situated between the towns of Athlone and Roscommon is St Dominic's GAA club in Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon, where spectators supporting the next generation of camogie players shared their Budget priorities.

For one woman, a mother of five children, seeing more money back in her pay packet is the ask.

"Two incomes in the house. I work part-time, my husband works full-time. What we'd like to see addressed is more for the people that are working, I suppose," she said.

"I understand why they might want social welfare increases, but if we could get our tax bands raised, that we could get something slightly back ..."

Another woman, who is self employed and runs her own business, wants rising, everyday costs addressed.

"I would see the food bill having jumped up hugely in the last six months," she said.

"And certainly the energy costs at the house, even though we have solar panels, have been impacted massively as well. So definitely these things have to be looked at."

Now retired, one man wants to see Budget 2027 prioritise looking after the most vulnerable.

"Pensions, I think, are a big thing," he said. "A lot of people are forgetting about older people, also people who are very low in means. We need to help them a bit more. But then everybody wants help, so it can only go so far."

For one young father, the cost of heating his home this winter is foremost in his thoughts this Budget day.

"I think the thing I'd be most worried about is home heating oil. I think it's just so expensive and it's just such a burden compared to last year," he said.

"We've made sure that the heating hasn't gone on yet and we'll wait until the Budget day and then we'll go from there."

'Just give small businesses a break'

For the business community, there are different concerns to be addressed.

On the busy main street of Roscommon town, local retailers have mixed feelings ahead of the Budget.

Edward Donnellan is the third generation of his family to operate Donnellan & Co, a menswear and footwear shop that has been trading since 1954.

For Mr Donnellan, the cost of employing the company’s 13 staff has significantly increased.

"We'd like to see PRSI come down in price. The hospitality trade has 9% VAT, we're 21% VAT, so it's quite a significant expense, you know it would help everybody," he said.

Across the street from Donnellan & Co is Madden’s Meats, a retail butcher shop in operation for almost 30 years.

For owner Tom Madden, while an increase to the minimum wage is a positive step, the rising cost of doing business is a real concern.

"They’re talking about extra money for people for the wages and that is great, I'm delighted with it," he said.

"But on the other side of that is, the more it goes up, the more pressure it puts on businesses. Overheads would be a massive problem at the moment, like ESB, 39 cents per unit, where a year ago you'd be talking about 22 cents to 20 cents, 35% across the board."

For Mr Madden, there is something that the Government can do for small retailers in Budget 2027.

"Just give small businesses a break," he said.

"But at the moment I can't see any help for any small business and I've seen so many small businesses around this town disappearing. Overnight, gone, forgotten about, that's the people that have been here for years."

From rural childcare shortages and rising household bills to mounting business costs and calls for tax relief, the message from people across Galway and Roscommon was clear ahead of Budget 2027 - many households and businesses still feel under pressure and want to see that tackled in today's announcements.