Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
============================================================

Ged Nash (LAB), Louth

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 afternoon by withdrawing the countermotion and ensuring it sends a signal to PAYE workers and the self-employed that it is for a change in its sights. It has gotten off to a very bad start. Working people are much worse off this year than they were this time last year. They took the Government's pre-election commitments at face value that this would not be the case. I will make a prediction. When a lot of the adjustments that were made in recent weeks are exhausted shortly, the Government will roll them over. The best and most responsible way of organising a financial package is to do so in a responsible, structured way with a mini-budget that is holistically managed and that ensures PAYE workers are looked after and that their interests are prioritised as well over the next few months and in advance of the October budget.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07