Ged Nash

PAYE workers need a mini-budget, and they need it now. Last October’s budget, the first of this Government’s new term, managed to pull off a quite extraordinary feat. It committed to spend over €9 billion more than the year before, yet left working families even worse off. This is an unparalleled achievement and all because of choices the Government made. Even before Trump and Israel’s war on Iran…

With respect, nothing the Minister has said on the record in response to my question will make it any easier for PAYE workers between now and the budget to get some respite and help with the high energy costs and so on she directly referenced. We can trace all of this back to the poor decisions the Government made in budget 2026. The Government will have an opportunity to make amends for that this…

Working people cannot wait any longer for support.

You keep introducing €750 million packages without any-----

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — Budget 2026 failed to provide for indexation of income tax credits and bands, providing instead untargeted Value-Added Tax (VAT) cuts for the hospitality and construction sector; — despite clear evidence of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the Government withdrew energy credits and cut pre-election once-off payments, that in recent years had cloaked th…

It is a jammy Government.

Hear, hear.

When push comes to shove.

In my concluding remarks I will counter one or two of the points the Minister of State made, the first being his claim that nobody likes talking about fiscal responsibility and that it is not sexy. Well, it is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night, and the Minister of State touched on one of the reasons. In an economy that is not managed responsibly, we know there is no future for working…

The sums are wrong in the budget.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, spent time in County Louth last Friday opening a welcome new social housing development. It was great to welcome him to our hometown and our small city. In the time he spent in County Louth, there was a very strong chance that some of the men he met are survivors and victims of disgraced paedophile and former doctor, Michael Shine. The spectre or ghost of M…

We were told time and again that the identification of DEIS plus schools would be done in a transparent, robust and evidence-based way but the fact that not a single school in Drogheda has found its way into this long-awaited scheme leads me to challenge that assertion. As the Minister of State will know, Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland yet to be declared a city. It is a great place with …

I would like to have more time available to discuss this, because I am confounded by that response. Effectively, what the Minister of State is saying is that we have disadvantage but that it is not at the level of concentration required for inclusion in DEIS plus. That is quite extraordinary in light of the data we have available. I will give the Minister of State an example. At least three of th…

It is not. It is about home ownership.

I am pleased to speak in support of the motion. I commend colleagues in Sinn Féin for deciding to use their weekly Private Member's time to advance the argument for a fairer deal for working people in this country with the support of ICTU colleagues. Many trade union friends and colleagues are in the Gallery this evening and watching online. We rightly spend a lot of time in this House making the …

Hundreds of thousands of working families have been left asking why they have been left behind by this Government. They are left wondering what it will take for the Government to act to help them. Which piece of road or which port should they blockade before the Government takes notice? Over the past six months, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents made deliberate decisions which left those wor…

There are other and better ways of targeting supports to businesses which may need them, not a blanket VAT cut that is going to disproportionately benefit the burger barons like Ronald McDonald and his friends. That is a very poor use of taxpayer money and is being paid for directly by PAYE workers. That is the reality. The Tánaiste is now trying to retroactively justify that by the increased ener…

We were because the Government got it so wrong.

Justice for the Kilgarvan one.

237. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his plans for a new savings and investment scheme for retail investors; the estimated cost to the Exchequer in terms of tax foregone in the first five years of the new scheme under preparation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26421/26]

I ask the Minister to update the House on his plans for a new savings and investment scheme for retail investors and if he could enlighten the House as to what he anticipates the estimated cost to the Exchequer in terms of tax forgone in the first five years of the scheme might be, and if there is, in fact, an assessment already done on that basis.

I welcome the debate on this. I accept that we need reform in this area. I have no difficulty with that. There has been a lot of focus on the deemed disposal rule. There is no doubt that how it operates is an anachronism and reform is needed. That should not sideline us from the need to develop alternative routes to allow people to plan for their future. I am glad the Tánaiste referred to the cont…

I understand that people are risk averse because people have been burnt before. There are always risks to investing. Any model or scheme that is developed has to be very clear on that. I understand why the Tánaiste might want to dip his toe in the water in a tentative fashion in the first instance, and then maybe move from there. The Tánaiste has been quoted as favouring the Swedish model. It is o…

I would say there was a sliding tackle from Coimisiún na Meán earlier on.

Five months into his tenure as Minister for Finance, the Tánaiste, is bringing forward a second batch of emergency financial resolutions just four weeks on from the initial €250 million package. On balance, we in the Labour Party support the decision to reduce excise duties on petrol and diesel but the Government is quickly running out of road on further reductions when the price shock from the di…