ATD Ireland 2026 Pre- Budget Submission

ATD Ireland welcome the opportunity to make a submission for Budget 2026.  

We write this pre- budget submission after a consultation with the ATD Ireland community, including those with lived experience of poverty. 

This was done as part of our new ‘Wall of Issues’ project funded by Coalition 2030. 

The ‘Wall of issues’ involves the photolanguage methodology.  A number of pictures and words are cut out from recent newspapers and spread out on the table.  These pictures are meant to represent a wide variety of social issues.  ATD Ireland members including Community Activists, team members, volunteers and friends picked images which struck them as important.  

Issues will be grouped into categories and organised on the wall e.g. housing, employment, health, education.  Participants will then be encouraged/ empowered to share potential solutions for each issue through a brainstorming session.

After the sessions we will, together with the participants, collaborate with experts, including academics to refine solutions while maintaining the voices of those with lived experience of poverty.

We think that pictures are better in helping others to understand what living in poverty means. A picture worth a thousand words. So, we are making a wall of issues about social issues such as homelessness, waiting lists for hospitals, hunger…

We will bring this information to the attention of government and other decision makers so that they are better informed and make better decisions.

Some of the issues which have been identified thus far include;

  • Poverty
  • Food scarcity
  • Job opportunities
  • Housing waiting lists
  • Disability services
  • Energy prices
  • Social media and bullying
  • Misuse of power and too much power being held by those in authority
  • The right to education
  • Socio- economic discrimination and judgement
  • Hope and the ability for social mobility
  • Divided communities
  • Loneliness and isolation
  • Women’s wellbring

This is an ongoing project which will inform a number of ATD Ireland actions.  For our pre- budget submission we cross- referenced the relevant issues to write a submission representative of our member’s views. 

Thank you to ATD Ireland volunteer Bernadette (former director Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice) for her support in facilitating the wall of issues and in writing the pre- budget submission.

Thank you to Coalition 2030 for funding this project and to eveyone who has contributed to our ‘Wall of Issues’ so far. 

Click here or below to read and download our full pre- budget submission.