Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)

Every budget tells us who matters, what matters, and who does not matter. This one tells us that far too many Irish people do not matter to the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and Lowryite Administration. Yes there are some good measures in the budget, until we scratch the surface of it. There is a €10 increase for pensioners and social welfare recipients, a €5 increase in fuel allowance, and a 9% VAT rate move that I would argue does too little too late by July of 2026. Some of my colleagues have mentioned that McDonalds will do well out of this. It is worth noting that McDonald's employs 11,700 people in full-time positions in this country, with an additional 2,760 people with ancillary jobs around the McDonald's group.

These are small steps by the Government that I have mentioned but they will not change the reality of most households who are struggling in Ireland. This is not a reformatory budget. It is a holding exercise. It is an exercise of holding the goods and holding back. It is a Government that is trying to steady itself but it does not move this Republic forward.

Consider, for example, our inheritance tax and the fairness that still is not there. Under the current capital acquisitions tax regime, there are three categories of relationships with different tax thresholds: group A is parents passing on to their children with a €400,000 threshold; group B is siblings, nieces, nephews and grandchildren with a €40,000 threshold; and group C, is "other", which is a friend, a colleague or somebody else the person knows, with a €20,000 threshold. A child can inherit up to €400,000 tax free but a niece or a nephew or a close friend can receive €40,000 or €20,000 before having to pay tax of 33%. This is a 10:1 difference or a 20:1 difference, depending on the bracket you are in. These hardworking citizens, who have done nothing but work hard, serve their country, and pay every tax that was asked of them, are being penalised by a system that fails to reflect modern Ireland. There are over 36,000 childless couples and there are 1 million adults without children in this country who cannot pass on their moneys. If this situation was reversed and the threshold was the other way around with a €40,000 threshold for the children, there would be uproar and outrage on the streets. This is why Independent Ireland and I will introduce a capital acquisitions tax (equity in family succession) Bill in early 2026. I hope the Government will support this to make the system fairer. Equality before the law should not depend on parenthood.

The case of industrial school survivors is a mortal debt ignored. This is another silence in the budget and it is a disgraceful one. There is not one single mention of the 4,500 survivors of Ireland's industrial schools and reformatory schools. These are men and women who were robbed of their childhoods, beaten, abused, and forced into labour in institutions that were run and funded by the State. Many of these people hold criminal records from the age of three months old with their only crime being torn from the arms of their mothers and fathers. Some of these people are now on day 17 of a hunger strike, just metres outside this House. Many of them are elderly and many are unwell, and they are on hunger strike and ignored by this Government. They have modest demands for a Health Amendment Act, HAA, style medical card, a full contribution pension for recognition of their forced labour, a survivor's trust of €500,000, and a national memorial that was promised to them by previous Governments going back to 2009. That is not charity; it is just simple justice for those people.

With regard to the cost of living, the reality on the ground at the supermarkets is that inflation is still above 5%. A family pack of chicken costing €6 in 2021 now costs €10.55 in the local supermarket. A loaf of bread is up by 20%. The cost of milk, cheese and eggs has risen by 15%. The €10 increase in welfare is gone before it has arrived. Three years of rising prices in this country have already wiped the value of that €10.

When we look at our older people, our widows and widowers, I believe it is wrong to be taxing them with local property tax. These are homes they have paid for throughout the years. There is no mention of that in this budget. They are not landlords and they are not speculators. No fair society would tax people over the age of 65, who are on a fixed income, on the roof over their heads. Quite simply, they have paid enough. Where is the accountability in this? Where is the money really going and where was it really spent last year? Some €4 billion was spent on accommodation and food for asylum seekers under IPAS. Much of that was to private operators under opaque contracts. Meanwhile, this Government fought tooth and nail with school principals, with parents, with teachers and with the Opposition over €26 million, the ask from school principals who asked for additional capitation money to keep the heat on in classrooms and to keep the lights on. This was not extravagance; it was just simply to keep the schools open and educate children. I am sure the Government would find the €26 million if it was something to do with gender equality, trans and all this sort of stuff it is trying to slip into eight-year-olds' minds. We spent €4 billion on a system that argues about €26 million to keep the lights on in our schools. Independent Ireland is calling for a Garda-led, national, anti-fraud task force to root out the waste and the profiteering of the IPAS business sector. It would cost roughly €19 million to set up and would recover, we believe, an estimated €400 million in a year alone - euro that could be spent on schools, carers and energy supports.

A budget is not about the numbers; it is about value. This budget leaves behind those without children, the survivors of atrocities, who are outside this House as we speak, the widows and the widowers, the families struggling at the till and the young man or the young girl going to work and filling the car. It leaves them behind. This is not a fair budget and it does not show leadership of this Government.

See this speech in context