Sir, – Those who face the gravest humanitarian crises in the world and the worst effects of food insecurity and conflict were left behind in Tuesday’s budget. While an increased allocation for climate finance is welcome, this does not go far enough.
It is beyond disappointing that there is no additional funding for development and humanitarian assistance; and this budget has been a missed opportunity to support those who are furthest behind.
At a time when there are devastating humanitarian crises in Sudan and Gaza, and areas of the Sahel and Southern Africa are beset by food insecurity, flooding and conflict, there is a growing disconnect between the escalating needs and our development and humanitarian funding.
Despite recent statements at the UN General Assembly, where Ireland has called on member states to act with urgency on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as progress falters, we are yet to see Ireland deliver on its promise. We are moving further and further away from reaching our target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on official development assistance spent overseas.
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Ireland rightly enjoys a reputation as a champion of overseas aid for the most vulnerable people, the poorest and those left furthest behind. On Tuesday, however, we failed to demonstrate that in real terms and translate our words into action.
Ireland has the means to give more, and it is disappointing that the Government chose not to invest more strongly in overseas development aid, something which 76 per cent of Irish people support. – Yours, etc,
JANE-ANN McKENNA,
CEO,
Dóchas, the Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organisations,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – My economics lecturer once said budgets should be tight but attainable.
The only thing challenging about Budget 2025 is getting it passed before a November election. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN RODDY,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – In making many good points about the extraordinarily skewed distribution of our income taxes, whereby well under 10 per cent of the population pay the bulk of it, a letter writer (October 3rd) makes an error.
Asking “who is looking after the more wealthy” in our society, the writer makes the frequent error of mixing up wealth and income.
An individual earning the enormous wage of €200,000, say, would lose about half of it in dedications at source.
If they somehow obtained a mortgage to purchase the cheapest home on the front page of the accompanying property supplement, for the required €850,000, their repayments might consume half of their net pay. This is not in any sense wealth.
The interests of the wealthy are being strongly lobbied for. They are represented by Alan Shatter, on the same letters page, for example, and the many campaigning for wealth to be inherited by individuals tax-free. This may ensure they need never work at all. Such citizens can enjoy the luxuries of living in one of the most developed countries in the world without paying for it, knowing their lifestyle is funded by those whose income is so heavily taxed that they can scarcely buy a home. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Minister for Finance Jack Chambers increased the bands and amounts which disposers can pass on tax free.
He did not address the unequal treatment of disposers who have children and those who do not.
Persons with children can dispose of their assets (Group A) to each child free of tax up to €400,000 and then dispose of any excess according to the rules governing Groups B and C recipients. Persons without children do not have the right to dispose of an equal amount of €400,000 tax free to whomever they wish. This is blatantly unequal treatment.
It should be possible to calculate the average cost per year to rectify this inequality with data from the Probate Office and the CSO. The average number of childless persons dying each year who have assets in excess of €400,000 must, based on demographic data (average numbers of single versus married couples), be pretty small.
Perhaps I should be addressing this issue to the Minister for Equality or the Minister for Justice. – Yours, etc,
AINE O’DONOGHUE,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – The initial summary criticisms by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) of Budget 2025 (News, October 2nd) regarding appropriate decisions of the Government to input billions of euro in supports and income tax cuts into the economy represents fundamentally poor analysis.
Attempts by Ifac to draw any comparisons with giveaway budgets from a boom-and-bust era such as the pre-Celtic Tiger era are facile given that in 2006 (according to an answer given in the Oireachtas by the then-minister for finance Brian Cowen to the then-Opposition spokesperson on finance Richard Bruton), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indication of inflation reached 3.8 per cent, when 2 per cent would have been generally judged to have been a more sustainable target level).
This era was also driven by economic overfuelling due to cheap, widespread unsustainable credit such as with the provision of 100 per cent mortgages.
By comparison, according to the Central Statistic Office, the CPI metric was reduced to 1.7 per cent in August this year, as opposed to 2.2 per cent in August last year.
It is a strong, established principle of any functioning economy that full employment is driven fundamentally by aggregate demand.
A more austere budget, such as one involving alternative avoidance of the income tax cuts granted now in the budget, would reasonably have been forecast to have imperilled consumer demand and confidence within the Irish economy, with a knock-on resulting threat to jobs.
The Government have responded to calls to make work more rewarding; childcare more affordable; as well as an appropriate additional foundation investment in infrastructure arising from the inflow of extra Apple monies that is apt, given the burgeoning pressures on capacity such additional infrastructure provision will meet, not just in the short term but in the decades ahead. – Yours, etc,
Cllr JOHN KENNEDY,
(Fine Gael),
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Offices,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Having watched and listened to the post-budgetary commentary, it strikes me that there is a deep malaise in Irish society. No one seems to be happy with what they got and all of this from a bumper budget, underlying which are once-off recoveries in bank shares, the Apple ruling and, most frighteningly, an over-reliance on volatile multinational corporate taxes.
Public expenditures are going through the roof with little or no accountability, transparency or responsibility and are notoriously difficult to row back on. Politics is broken.
There is no strategic long-term plan to deal with the many problems facing the country. It’s auction politics. – Is mise,
VERNON RUSHE,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – I suggest that Jack Chambers announces next year’s budget tomorrow. That’s one way to stay ahead of the leakers. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CURRAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.