BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE
PART 2. BUDGET 2025 PRIORITIES
Supporting workers, families and communities
INTRODUCTION
COST OF LIVING PACKAGE
HOUSING
PROTECTING WORKERS AND FAMILIES
SUPPORTING FAMILIES
HEALTH SERVICES
COMMUNITIES
CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY
DISABILITY AND CARE
IRISH UNITY
EXPENDITURE
FINANCE PROPOSALS
HOUSING
Sinn Féin are all in on housing. Housing has the power to transform the quality of people’s lives and strengthen our economy. The housing emergency touches all areas of our society and economy.
A home is not just a roof over your head. It is fundamental to the wellbeing of people, families, communities, public service delivery, the economy, and the nation.
As of July this year, 14,429 people are forced to suffer homelessness including 4,401 children in the state.
In 2020 Fine Gael said they would “do everything possible to tackle homelessness”. Fianna Fáil called the last government’s failure to resolve the homelessness crisis “a damning indictment of government policy.” The Greens in 2020 criticised a “homelessness emergency of staggering proportions”.
Since these parties entered government together in June 2020 over 5,700 more people are homeless. That is a 65% increase. A failure with devastating consequences.
People suffering homelessness are at the sharpest end of the housing emergency. But everyone suffers when the government fails to build social and affordable housing.
Ever higher rents and house prices and a general lack of housing is destroying lives, threatens FDI, drives emigration, and causes shortages of critical workers in cities and towns across the state.
Home ownership has collapsed among young people since Fine Gael came to power in 2011. Today there are 100,000 less people between the ages of 25 – 40 that own their own home. Fine Gael have halved the number of people in the age bracket that own their own home.
Sinn Féin are committed to bringing homeownership back within reach for working people. Everyone deserves a home. We have a plan to make housing affordable and to bring homeownership within reach of working people.
As set out in our comprehensive Housing Plan, Sinn Féin will deliver 300,000 new homes, private and public, affordable to buy and to rent over the lifetime of the next government. We are committed to enabling people to build homes in their own communities.
In Government, we will deliver the most ambitious public housing programme in the history of the state.
The full cost of Sinn Féin’s public housing programme over five years, adjusted for inflation, would be €39bn. This includes a total cost of €37bn for the new build programme and €2bn for the acquisitions programme.
This would be provided for through €25.3bn in voted capital expenditure from the exchequer and €13.7bn in non-voted expenditure comprising of loans from the Housing Finance Agency and other sources.
The government’s targets for social and affordable homes in 2025 are far too low. In our Alternative Budget for 2025, Sinn Féin would begin a significant ramping up in the delivery of housing including 21,500 new-build social and affordable homes to rent and purchase in 2025. This would require an additional investment of €2.47bn (€1.42bn voted capital expenditure and €1bn non-voted) above what has been pre-commit for 2025.
We also propose additional resources for the planning system in order to hasten the pace of delivery. We would also improve our apprenticeship system to expand the supply of workers needed for delivering our housing and public infrastructure goals, including the abolition of craft apprenticeship fees and increasing travel and accommodation allowances for apprentices. We would also provide the capital investment needed in wider infrastructural development, including for water and sewage, to enable new housing development to progress at the scale needed to deliver on our ambitions.
In addition to our public housing programme, Sinn Féin would introduce a series of measures to alleviate the pressures stemming from the housing crisis in the here and now.
We know that renters need urgent relief from rising rents. Sinn Féin would therefore put one month’s rent back into private renters’ pockets ensuring that all adult renters receive a minimum of €1,000 and ban rent increases for three years. This would ensure that renters are provided the relief they need right now while we scale up the delivery of public housing.
We also know that homeowners need relief from soaring mortgage costs. Sinn Féin therefore propose temporary and targeted mortgage interest relief based on the additional mortgage payment a homeowner is paying compared to June 2022, paid at a rate of 25% up to a cap of €1,250.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Delivering 21,500 social and affordable homes – cost additional €1.42bn voted capital expenditure, €2.47bn general government expenditure
Speeding up the planning process by increasing staffing in the system including in An Bord Pleanála and local authorities – cost €12 million in 2025, full year cost €22 million
Putting one month’s rent back into private renters’ pockets with a minimum payment of €1,000 for each adult renter, and ban increases for 3 years – cost €150 million
Investing in workforce capacity by abolishing craft apprenticeship fees and increasing supports – cost €18 million
Remove stamp duty for first-time buyers – cost €39.5 million
Mortgage Interest Relief – cost €336 million
Increase stamp duty to end the bulk purchase of homes
Additional investment in Water Infrastructure – cost €100 million
COSTING OF LIVING – PROTECTING WORKERS AND FAMILIES
The cost-of-living crisis is not over. Workers are worse off in real terms than when this government came to power. Pensioners, carers, people with disabilities are all worse off today than 4 years ago.
Wages and core social supports have not kept pace with inflation. House prices, rents, childcare, food, and energy bills are leaving workers and families struggling to get by.
This impacts the wider economy as people cut back on other goods and services. When people have no money in their pockets the local economy struggles.
Sinn Féin would act to protect households and the economy from the cost-of-living crisis. Alongside the immediate measures proposed in our cost-of-living package for 2024, Sinn Féin propose that Budget 2025 tackle the rising cost of living by making lasting reforms.
This crisis was triggered by supply chain issues and the invation of Ukraine. But there are also long-term failures of successive governments that have driven up prices on basics at home.
Housing, healthcare, and childcare are not affordable and put households under massive pressure. We will make fundamentals like housing, health services and childcare affordable.
In August, the government punished motorists with a tax hike on petrol and diesel as the cost-of-living crisis continues. The government’s tax hikes will make Irish motorists the most taxed in the EU. Instead of easing the burden on hard-pressed households, the government is determined to increase costs.
They plan a series of increases to the carbon tax and road tolls. The government refuses to protect renters by not placing a ban on further rent increases. The ECB rate remains high and the government’s mortgage relief scheme excludes too many people who are affected by these increases.
Energy costs are far too high and put huge pressure on workers and families. People simply cannot afford the huge bills that are being asked of them.
In Ireland, we pay the highest electricity prices in the EU. This at a time when wholesale energy prices are at a 2-year low.
Government, the CRU and energy companies blame hedging strategies for the sustained high prices but, in truth, there is no oversight whatsoever of these strategies.
Sinn Féin would act to ensure there is transparency and accountability in the energy market. We would empower the CRU to monitor hedging practices and to tackle anti-competitive practices.
The monthly rate of Child Benefit is still below the 2008 rate, which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cut. There has been no increase since 2016. We would help families under pressure by increasing the rate of child benefit. Sinn Féin are committed to supporting families every step of the way.
Pensions and other social welfare payments have also not kept pace with Inflation leaving people that rely on these payments worse off than when this government came to power in 2020.
Sinn Féin are proposing a €1.7bn social welfare package that will increase pensions and other
social welfare payments.
The USC was introduced by Fianna Fáil after they crashed the economy. Sinn Féin will ensure the average worker does not have to pay USC by abolishing the USC on the first €45,000 of every workers’ income beginning in Budget 2025 with the removal of the first €30,000 as part of a fair tax package.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Ensuring the average worker does not have to pay USC by abolishing the USC on the first €45,000 of every workers’ income beginning in Budget 2025 with the removal of the first €30,000 as part of a fair tax package – cost €1 billion
Cutting childcare fees to €10 per child per day – cost €34.7 million in 2025, full year cost €104.4 million
One month’s rent back into renters’ pockets and ban increases for 3 years – €150 million
Temporary and targeted Mortgage Interest Relief, with a maximum annual benefit per household of €1,250 – €336 million
Reducing the cost of medicine by lowering the maximum monthly drugs payments by households from €80 to €50, reducing prescription charges, and extending medical cards to 150,000 additional people – cost €157 million in 2025, full year cost €251 million
Increasing the minimum wage by €1.10
Increasing the monthly rate of Child Benefit by €10 – cost €152.6 million
Increasing working age weekly social welfare rates by €12, the carer’s allowance by €12, pensions by €12, disability-related payments by €20, Jobseeker’s Allowance by €10 and providing increases for qualified children by €5 – cost €1.04 billion
Abolishing student fees commencing with a reduction of €1500, increasing SUSI maintenance grants by 15% and extending SUSI support to post-graduate fees – cost €82 million in 2025, full year cost €180 million
SUPPORTING FAMILIES – EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
Sinn Féin will make it affordable to start and raise a family. Our commitment to you and your families is clear: We will be by your side every step of the way. From infancy, to childcare, primary, secondary and into third-level education.
Many parents would like to have the choice to spend the first year with their child. Others simply cannot get access to a place in a creche infant room. Maternity Benefit is currently available for just 26 weeks, Paternity Benefit for 2 weeks and Parent’s Benefit for 9 weeks.
Sinn Féin would invest over 2 years €100 million to ensure that leave can cover all 52 weeks of the child’s first year, starting with a €53 million in year 1.
This measure would also serve to relieve some pressure on capacity in the formal childcare sector where staff to child ratios are at their highest for this age group.
Sinn Féin in government will deliver affordable childcare. This means giving all parents access to childcare at €10 a day per child – as outlined in our policy document.
This means that if you have a child who attends childcare full-time, five days a week, you will go from paying an average of €800 per month to paying €200 per month. This is a game-changer for families.
This will be done by increasing the subvention to centre-based childcare providers and TUSLA registered childminders in 2025 – guaranteeing a €10 a day offering to these children followed by a roll-out to further childminders over the subsequent years.
Fee caps are in place in other countries where governments recognise the benefit of affordable childcare to working families and to the economy.
In Budget 2025 we would bring all children in childcare facilities and by Tusla registered childminders into our €10 a day scheme.
After that we propose extending this scheme to cover between 90,000 – 100,000 additional children and will include all childminders by the end of our first term in government.
Sinn Féin recognise that parents struggle with costs even when their children enter the public education system. Free Education is a myth. In practice, education is too expensive from primary level right up to third level.
It is crucial to ensure that everyone starts off on an equal footing. That everyone has equal access to the necessary tools and resources required to reach their full potential.
We will reduce the cost of education on parents by phasing out so-called ‘voluntary contributions.’ We will increase funding for schools to end the need for these contributions and legislate to phase them out completely over a term of government.
Sinn Féin would in government increase funding to expand School transport by 100,000 additional seats. This would begin with 30,000 additional seats in Budget 2025. Our budget proposal for 2025 is to extend hot meals to all primary schools and commence roll out to secondary schools and provide free schoolbooks for senior cycle. We would also increase funding for the free school books scheme in primary schools so that top-up payments are no longer sought from parents. We would recruit more than 1,500 additional SETs and almost 1,900 additional SNAs to better support and deliver appropriate school places to children with Special Educational Needs.
Sinn Féin would invest €100 million in 2025 to unlock shovel-ready student accommodation projects. It is unforgivable that this government has prevented the delivery of thousands of student beds with planning permission by failing to provide the necessary public investment. We would halve the cost of fees at third level to €1,500 and abolish them over three years. We would immediately abolish fees for apprentices in 2025.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Reduce childcare costs for parents to €10 per day per child in centre-based care and TUSLA registered childminders in 2025, rolling out fully to childminders thereafter – cost €35 million in 2025, full year cost €104.4 million
Extend Parental Leave and Benefit by 4 weeks in 2025 and 4 further weeks in 2026 – €53 million in 2025, full cost €106 million
Commence roll-out of Activity Card scheme providing €130 worth of free afterschool sport, arts and cultural activities to children – €17.4 million in 2025
Tackling Back to School Costs – cost €126.5m in 2025
Increase SET and SNA posts – €65 million in 2025*, full year cost €146.5m
Invest in affordable student accommodation – €100m
Cutting the cost of third level fees in half to €1,500 and abolish apprenticeship fees – cost €77.6 million, full year cost €160.1 million
*38m of which will be from the ELS provision
DELIVERING BETTER HEALTH SERVICES
Healthcare reform is a core priority for Sinn Féin. Our multi-annual plan would deal with overcrowding, reduce waiting lists, improve patient safety, and deliver free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare. Our plan spans all care sectors, supports best practice, challenges the worst inefficiencies and inequities, and recognises that investment is needed to deliver reform. It addresses capacity, processes, and workforce planning. We would bring healthcare into the 21st century with a major investment in digital transformation. We will be publishing our full 5-year health plan in the coming weeks. We have previously published comprehensive proposals in our documents Priorities for Change in Health and Social Care (2023) and Alternative Budget for Health 2024 (2023).
Sinn Féin would take big bold steps towards universal healthcare over a 5-year term. We would provide full medical card cover to all workers up to the median income by upgrading 150,000 GP visit cards a year to full medical cards. In 2025, we would also cap monthly medicine costs at €50 for all other households, phase out car parking charges, and reduce prescription charges.
Sinn Féin would set a zero-tolerance approach to hospital trolleys and overcrowding as a target for all hospitals. To achieve this, we would invest in 5,000 hospital inpatient beds out to 2031, including replacements for 1,000 unsuitable beds. This is in addition to a current pipeline of c. 1,000 beds and the c. 1,200 beds funded since 2020. We would also invest in diagnostic capacity, theatre space, and aligned discharge capacity in the community. We would accelerate the delivery of public only elective hospitals to tackle waiting lists. We would legislate to apply safe staffing levels and waiting list targets.
Within our hospital investment plan, Sinn Féin would prioritise investment in children’s healthcare. The agonising waits faced by children with scoliosis and spina bifida are unacceptable, and these children are not alone. Thousands more are languishing on waiting lists with untreated complex conditions. Sinn Féin would end the calamity of mismanagement of paediatric orthopaedics, mandate transparent care pathways for all children, ensure funded training for more specialist surgeons, and expand protected surgical and recovery capacity. Every child should have the opportunity for early intervention and wrap-around supports to manage their health. We would ensure that, where domestic services cannot treat a child on time, children who can travel have access to treatment abroad.
Sinn Féin would drive on essential home and community care reforms to relieve pressure on acute hospitals. We would invest in primary care, develop a landmark public GP contract, employ public dental teams, establish a Pharmacy First model for common conditions, and deliver a transformation in home care and home support. We would deliver 2,000 community beds over a term of Government.
Sinn Féin’s Mental Health Action Plan would deliver an integrated early intervention service for children and young people, expand access to Jigsaw and primary care mental health services, fund the full complement of inpatient and intellectual disability CAMHS teams, and deliver 20 more early intervention in psychosis teams. We would also invest towards achieving universal counselling in primary care.
Sinn Féin would implement multi-annual funding frameworks to deliver national strategies, such as for cancer, stroke, eating disorders, and women’s health, to name a few, which have been starved of adequate investment. Sinn Féin would set aside €90 million in recurring funding across a range of strategies in 2025, in addition to €17 million for our community addiction and recovery plan and €15 million to ensure a continued supply of new medicines and therapies. We would establish a structured care programme in women’s health to deliver a high-quality, life course approach to women and girls’ health and wellbeing. This would include access to therapies and medication, including contraception and HRT.
Sinn Féin would underpin delivery with strategic workforce planning to ensure a sustainable supply of frontline workers. We would double the number of third-level training places for health and social care over a term of government. We would maximise opportunities for domestic students and graduates to reduce reliance on international recruitment.
Sinn Féin priority measures for 2025 include:
Reducing the cost of medicine by lowering the maximum monthly drugs payments by households from €80 to €50, reducing prescription charges, and extending medical cards to 150,000 additional people – cost €157 million in 2025, full year cost €251 million
Increase hospital capacity and invest in new beds – first year cost €334 million
Invest in GPs, pharmacies and community healthcare including community beds – cost €150 million in 2025, full year cost €168 million
Improve and expand home and residential care, and specialist dementia care – first year cost €104 million, full year €142 million
Strategies and improvement programmes – cost €105 million
Invest in mental health services – cost €30 million in 2025, full year cost €49 million
Advanced Workforce Planning – cost €30 million in 2025, full year cost €48 million
Double Health and Social Care places in Higher Education – €26.5 million
Addiction and recovery – cost €36 million in 2025, full year cost €50 million
Invest in Ambulance Strategic Plan – first and full year cost €23 million
Digital transformation – €100 million
Savings (Agency staff, consultancy firms, procurement compliance, etc) – saves €100 million
STRONG AND SAFE COMMUNITIES
Sinn Féin will stand up for working class and rural communities to ensure that our streets are safe.
The public deserves a policing service that they can have confidence in. People want to know that when anti-social behaviour and crime do occur there will be a quick and effective Garda response. That requires a well-resourced and supported force.
An Garda Síochána is facing an unprecedented crisis in recruitment and retention. A record number of resignations took place in 2023 and the latest figures for 2024 show little improvement. The shortage of gardaí has left members stretched and at risk. Several gardaí have spoken of the negative cycle of stress and demoralisation. If these cycles continue, it will likely drive further resignations.
Sinn Féin would commence the largest Garda recruitment drive in the history of the state, maximising recruitment in 2025 to bring in 1,000 new trainees. To help achieve this, we would increase the garda trainee allowance by 30% to €397 a week.
Sinn Féin will also strengthen communities. The best way to do this is to make them vibrant places to live where people, particularly young people have outlets for development and expression and a good education with good job opportunities. Prevention is the best approach to anti-social behaviour, and that is why Sinn Féin will prioritise investing in our youth services.
Sinn Féin wants to grow youth services in Ireland and to increase provision within youth services for arts, health and mental health initiatives. Ireland’s growing population and level of need has far outstripped the level of investment provided by the government to this sector. Foróige have made a series of proposals for Budget 2025 which Sinn Féin endorse and would fully provide for.
Young people should have more spaces to meet including youth cafes, as well as school and community facilities out of hours. We want all young people in Ireland to have high-quality youth services and will prioritise investment in this area.
Sinn Féin also recognises the lack of funding for programmes such as SICAP and LEADER, which are vital for communities. We will increase funding for such programmes.
To strengthen our communities further, Sinn Féin will also invest in sport.
Sinn Féin will put €1bn of the Apple Tax money into a communities fund to invest in working class communities that have been left behind by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Funding for 1,000 new Garda recruits in 2025 and an increase to the Garda trainee allowance of 30% – Cost €16.4m in 2025, full year cost €32.8m
Increasing investment in youth services including Universal Youth Hubs – €15m
Additional funding for SICAP, LEADER and the community services programme – €31.8m
€20 million for Community Centre investment including capital funding for youth services and €4.5 million for Family Resource Centres
Additional investment in sport including LSSIF and soccer – €46.5m
CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY
Sinn Féin has a fair and deliverable plan to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss that will ensure meeting our environmental targets goes hand in hand with delivering a better quality of life for workers and families.
The state is on track to miss our 2030 target of 80% renewable electricity production, risking our environmental commitments and our energy security. Ireland continues to import 81.6% of our energy, of which 85.8% stems from fossil fuel sources. The failure to realise the potential of our own wind and solar resources and consequent failure to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels at pace also left us excessively vulnerable to volatility in the international energy markets.
Sinn Féin want to change this. We will prioritise accelerating the transition towards renewable energy and will do so in a manner which maximises energy independence, affordability and public ownership.
We would move away from punitive approaches such as the carbon tax and implement state driven, supply-side investment in green infrastructure.
We would address underinvestment in both renewable energy and grid infrastructure with a €750 million renewable energy investment fund, starting with a €50 million investment in year 1, this will ramp up quickly.
Several of our state bodies are engaged in renewable generation, including ESB and Bord na Móna. Their roles should be supported and expanded. This fund would allow for joint-ventures with state-owned enterprises and private companies.
In addition to expanding public ownership of our renewable resources, our Budget would expand domestic ownership of renewable energy. We would increase investment in domestic solar PV and ensure more equitable access to these supports.
We would also transform the retrofit programme. Whereas the government’s schemes lock out most ordinary people and offer the same level of support for millionaires as those on minimum wage, we propose tiered grants so that the more help you need to afford a retrofit, then the more help you will get. Our policies will direct more than two thirds of the funding for retrofits to middle and low-income households. With Sinn Féin, achieving our climate targets go hand in hand with alleviating energy poverty and inequality.
Sinn Féin value Ireland’s unique biodiversity – the complex and interconnected ecosystem that is the beating heart of our society, economy and our very survival – and will support its protection and regeneration with a Biodiversity and Nature Restoration Fund starting with a €50 million investment in year one.
We will also expand and restore our national parks, as well as publicly owned and accessible natural areas, including urban green spaces.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Establishing a Renewable Energy Investment Fund to accelerate the transition including investment in our ports – cost €50 million in 2025
Resourcing the planning system to speed up the development of renewable generation – cost €5.2m
Replacing the national retrofit programme with a fairer and more effective retrofit plan and substantially increasing investment in domestic solar PV – cost €203 million*
Protect and enhance biodiversity, through the establishment of a dedicated Biodiversity and Nature Restoration Fund, increased investment in afforestation and in urban green spaces and the expansion and restoration of our national parks – cost €92 million
Furthering climate justice by levying environmental taxes on excessive consumption and wealth through a pollution tax on private jets – raises €18 million
*of which €89 million is re-profiled from the additional monies allocated to retrofits for 2025 as per the NDP.
DISABILITY AND CARE
Sinn Féin are determined to make the rights of people with disabilities real.
Sinn Féin believe that Budget 2025 must tackle the appallingly high rate of poverty and enforced deprivation across households headed by a person with a disability. The extra costs of having a disability are significant and are a key factor perpetuating poverty among people with disabilities. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated the financial hardship faced by people with disabilities. One-off payments alone are insufficient. Core weekly rates must be increased to begin to cover the long recognised additional costs to which disability gives rise.
The failure of government to ensure housing is affordable is driving an exodus of critical staff and undermining already stretched services. Their failure to address the housing crisis has fed into extremely high rates of vacancy across children’s disability network teams and teachers being pulled from special education roles.
A Sinn Féin Government would implement an unprecedented investment programme to deliver a rights-based approach to disability services. Delivering on the Disability Capacity Review, we would provide for unmet and future need, and fund therapies, respite services, residential care and de-congregation, personal assistance services, home support hours, day services, and access to specialist and mainstream community services.
A Sinn Féin government would invest in people with disabilities.
Carers are the backbone of our society. Every day they look after and care for some of our most vulnerable citizens. The unpaid caring work of many family carers goes unrecognised. In addition to increasing the rate of payment for the Carer’s Allowance in Budget 2025, Sinn Féin would raise the income threshold to €1,460 for a couple and €730 for a single person so that thousands more carers will become eligible for payment. And those who are already eligible but on a partial payment will see their rate increase.
Sinn Féin priority measures for 2025 include:
Increasing core disability-related social welfare schemes by €20 – cost €293 million
Increasing the Carer’s Allowance by €12, relaxing the Carer’s Allowance Means Test and introducing Pay-Related Carer’s Benefit – cost €174.5 million
Increasing the annual Carer’s Support Grant to €2,000 and increasing the Domiciliary Care Allowance by €10 – cost €38 million
Investing in lifelong inclusion in learning by hiring an additional 1,500 additional Special Education Teachers and 1,900 SNAs; extending the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) across Further Education and Training; investing in the Wage Subsidy Scheme and rolling out career supports for young people with disabilities across the country based on the WALK PEER model – €83 million in 2025*
Funding targeted recruitment and retention measures for children’s disability services and a Community Care Access Fund to speed up access of mental health and disability diagnosis and interventions – cost €30 million in 2025
Making greater provision for people with disabilities to live in appropriate accommodation by investing in decongregation, group and independent living in the community, Personal Assistance and making public transport accessible – cost €119 million in 2025
Creating more spaces in adult day services, opportunities for respite and intensive home support packages for children with disabilities – cost €37.5 million in 2025, full year cost €72.6 million
Reforming the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passenger’s Scheme – cost €19 million
Double funding for housing adaptation grants – cost €25 million
Putting in place a Disabled Persons Organisations (DPO) Training and Development Fund and a Disability Inclusion Fund for all Local Authorities to support their specific disability inclusion requirements in line with the UN CRPD and Public Sector Duty – cost €8 million in 2025.
*38m of which will be from the ELS provision
PLANNING FOR IRISH UNITY
The reunification of Ireland is at the very heart of Sinn Féin. Achieving a new united Ireland, which unlocks the full potential of our island, is the party’s core political objective. Irish Unity is the future.
A united Ireland – a new and shared Ireland – will provide the basis on which a stronger and fairer society can be built across our island. The Good Friday Agreement provides the mechanism through referendums, to end partition and achieve a united Ireland democratically and peacefully.
The new united Ireland that Sinn Féin is working to build will have citizens’ rights at its core.
The Irish Government has a duty and a constitutional obligation to prepare for Unity.
The Irish government must publicly lead the conversation through a process of inclusive dialogue involving unionists, nationalists, and others about future constitutional change.
Sinn Féin advocates the setting up of Citizens’ Assemblies on a sector-by-sector basis. These assemblies should be designed to ensure they are as inclusive as possible. Arrangements should facilitate participation by vulnerable groups and sectors of society that are traditionally underrepresented in policy making.
Usually, a Joint Oireachtas Committee is established to deal with the conclusions of a Citizens’ Assembly and assist government with implementing its recommendations. Given the nature of the work the Citizens’ Assembly or Assemblies on constitutional change, a Special Oireachtas Committee should be established immediately to work alongside citizen assemblies.
We need to expand and deepen the level of research on all areas related to Irish Unity. For this reason, Sinn Féin would allocate an additional €8 million in 2025.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
The establishment of Citizens’ Assemblies to be set up on a sector-by-sector basis to produce recommendations on all matters relevant to constitutional change – cost €3 million
Fund research that contributes toward preparations for Irish Unity – cost €8 million
Progress cross-border capital projects such as the A5.
Building a Better Future - Sinn Féin's Alternative Budget 2025
Every year Sinn Féin publishes a comprehensive, fully costed set of budget proposals. No other opposition party provide the level of detail for voters. We do this to show how from day one in government we will deliver real change for you, for your family and for your community.
