Finance Bill 2026 [Certified Money Bill]: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

This is the last time I will come in on this point. I accept what the Minister of State is saying. We are both more or less saying the same thing. It would be wrong not to recognise the measures the Government introduced have eased the burden on people who were put to the pin of their collar. People are less anxious and stressed out and the measures have eased the burden. Therefore, this was not a made-up reason to protest but was a protest based on a genuine need. If those pressures are put back on people who are to the pin of their collar we could have an escalation again and none of us want to see that. It is our responsibility to see the measures introduced have worked and worked well, which I think everybody agrees. We need to do more than tax people again. We need to come up with more alternatives. I hope what the Minister of State said is right and the budget deals with this more appropriately. However, at the minute those burdens have been eased and we cannot keep the people who are working and keeping the country afloat taxed so highly they are unable to work, because it then becomes a hierarchy of needs. Are we going to tax them and tax them until we put them out of business, meaning they go on social welfare and we have to pay for them anyway? That is more or less what I am saying. If the Government taxes people until it puts them out of business, it is going to have to support them in some way anyway.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-07