Paul Hosford: Little fanfare across the board for Budget 2026's offerings 

Minister for public expenditure Jack Chambers and minister for finance Paschal Donohoe outside Government Buildings before their budget speeches. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

That it took some 73 minutes for the first proper "hear, hear" of the budget speeches, probably says it all.

Budget 2026 was commended to the house to a round of applause, but it was not the kind of rapturous applause when last year's pre-election bonanza was announced.

While Budget 2026 contains promises to spend €117bn, you could hardly have guessed it by the buzz, or lack thereof, around Leinster House. 

Save for the cameramen on the stairs up to the Dáil chamber and the Irish Examiner team's traditional pre-Budget fry in Oireachtas canteen this could, largely, have been any other Tuesday, if you ignored that the streets on either side of Leinster House were locked down.

The ring of steel goes up on big days as a matter of course in recent years amid justified security concerns, but when nobody shows up it can look like overkill.

On Tuesday, there was little happening outside the building. There wasn't much life inside it either.

Usually a bubbling hub of activity on budget day, Leinster House was strangely subdued, with much focus of conversation on Jim Gavin's sensational withdrawal from the presidential race on Sunday.

Journalists, who had waited patiently on the stairs to the Dáil's visitor's gallery for the physical copies of "the books" to be released by Department of Finance — there's still a lot of convention about how and when the details of the Budget can be posted online, with swift rebukes for transgressors — scurried back to their offices dotted around the campus to dissect and disseminate the contents, but it quickly became clear that there wasn't much to carve up. 

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Whereas in previous years, much of the spending was itemised and included a handy table at the end of each departmental chapter of "selected measures", this year's expenditure report is a lot less detailed.

This reflects a few things. 

Firstly, that the National Development Plan has accounted for much of what might be considered granular newsworthy items. Details of that reworked plan will be announced in the coming weeks, the Dáil was told. 

Secondly, much of what is being spent is to expand and buttress existing services, rather than on flashy new schemes or initiatives which might draw the eye. 

Thirdly, there just isn't all that much to go around, as moderation of spending was pressed home to departments.

When public expenditure minister Jack Chambers hailed the rise in the capitation grant for schools, he was met with a chorus of approval from his government colleagues. 

Jack Chambers delivering his Budget 2026 statement in the Dáil chamber. Picture: OireachtasTV

It was belated support, but more was to come not long after as Mr Chambers confirmed €3m for League of Ireland academies. 

The cameras panned to sports minister Patrick O'Donovan, roundly considered to have been the most successful minister in arguing for his lot, who looked delighted with the chance to fund the creation of the next Irish football star.

But Mr O'Donovan was in the minority as the feeling afterwards from TDs was one of underwhelm, before the opposition got its chance to respond. 

Pearse Doherty, not normally known to be a shrinking violet, came at the Government for bothering to clap at all, telling them that self-praise is no praise at all.

He called the Government's applause for its ministers "self-congratulatory applause and backslapping that would make you all blush with embarrassment and shame".

When all the clapping is done and all the backslapping is over, when the Government benches die down and the dust settles on all of the spin we have heard and on the bluster and deluded arrogance that has come dripping from both ministers' speeches, where are ordinary people?

It was a good question, mostly because there wasn't many ordinary people around at all, not in the visitors' gallery or outside. 

The usually heaving Dáil bar was notably less busy than it has been in recent years, though some lobbyists were spotted later in the day, even one whose press release reaction had excoriated the Government's moves in their industry. 

The lack of spectacle in the day was summed up by colleague Louise Burne, who pointed out that there wasn't even turkey and ham on the canteen's menu, while a TD pointed out to her that his wrap contained the festive meats.

Across the board, TDs and senators and ministers wanted to talk about one thing and it wasn't the Budget. 

The fact that the morning of the delivery saw Mr Gavin on every front page and not the detail of a €117bn Budget shows how much the issue has captured the attention of the public and the body politic. 

With a Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday being billed as a showdown between members and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, it's almost as if the Government's announcement of every penny it will spend in the next 12 months is a sideshow.

But given the subdued nature of the announcements and the day in total, that feeling is probably correct.