Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

While we may differ politically, I will miss him at some of the same gigs we managed to attend. While we differ politically, we also differ in terms of our football teams as well but we can move beyond that. In Deputy Donohoe’s engagement with me and my party over the years, he has shown nothing but respect, integrity and honour and I thank him for that. I wish him, Justine and the family every success in his next chapter.

The changing of a Minister for Finance is no small thing. When the figure at the top of the Department of Finance changes, the dynamic of a Government and the relationship between the Minister and the Department of public expenditure changes as well. That access is really important. Under the Tánaiste, this dynamic, of course, will change. One of the most unjustifiable and unwarranted tax cuts in decades was made in budget 2026. It is contained in the Finance Bill and it is the nonsensical VAT cut down to 9% for the hospitality sector. This tax cut, at the expense of working people who will pay more tax next year as a result of this, has the Tánaiste's fingerprints all over it. In fact, the only people who seem to think that boosting the bottom line of burger barons was a good idea was Deputy Harris, the new Minister for Finance, and the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Deputy Burke. I have said time and again, based on all of the evidence and actions of this Government, and its previous iterations, that this, and the previous Administration's, reputation for responsible fiscal management is wholly unwarranted. The Minister, Deputy Harris's, 9% VAT rate cut proves that point. We cannot have more of this. If we get more of the same from the incoming Minister for Finance, the economy is sure to hit the rails. This VAT cut alone makes me wonder about the incoming Minister's judgment on economic affairs, what we may expect and what may lie ahead.

A responsible Minister for Finance would use this opportunity today to frame his or term in that office by saying that these kinds of wheezes will not be entertained anymore and that he or she will carefully and responsibly manage the economy, for example, by indexing tax changes for working people over the next few years in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. A responsible Minister for Finance would ensure as well that they would do something that has sadly been lacking in recent years, which is to make our budget-making system more transparent that there would be more accountability to this House and to Dáil committees on how we spend the public's money because budgets these days are quite simply works of fiction.

I congratulate all of those on their new appointments today: the new Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence, Deputy McEntee, the newly-minted Minister of state, Deputy Feighan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins as well. I have one word of advice for the incoming Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton. Yesterday, those of us who are TDs in Louth were receiving emails from a principal of Darver National School advising students to bring in toilet roll and their own hand towels with them today. She should commit to making education genuinely free.

That should be the Minister's legacy.

See this speech in context