Sir, – Any increase in official development aid (ODA) has to be welcomed. But the €776.5 million announced in this week’s Budget 2024 for ODA, in the context of escalating humanitarian needs, does not go far enough.
What we give in our overseas aid budget is our statement of solidarity and commitment as a country to ending poverty globally, and to supporting human rights, particularly women’s rights. Irish Aid programmes are recognised as world leading. However, we must remember that the scale of humanitarian disaster and climate crisis is staggering. Acute food insecurity globally continues to escalate, disproportionately impacting women and girls.
If Ireland is serious about addressing rising global poverty, and the impact of climate, conflict and hunger, we need to get serious about ending the use of fossil fuels. ActionAid Ireland recently revealed that Ireland is playing a worrying role in fuelling the climate crisis as a significant channel for global institutional investment in fossils fuels and harmful industrial agriculture. Funds registered here hold a staggering €5.7 billion ($6.2 billion) in bonds and shares in climate-harming activities in the Global South.
It is essential that Government policies must not undermine our aid commitments. We are at a dangerous moment in relation to the climate crisis. Ireland needs to step up – not just in climate finance, but with coherent policies that truly tackle the crisis. – Yours, etc,
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KAROL BALFE,
CEO,
ActionAid Ireland,
Dublin 1.
Sir, – Budget 2024 demonstrates an alarming ambivalence by the Government to its commitments under the Climate Action Plan 2023 (Cap 23). When announced, Cap 23 represented a substantial increase in ambition by the Government to reduce emissions by 51 per cent by 2030 from a 2018 baseline. This requires an estimated investment of €120 billion between 2022 and 2030. However, Budget 2024 falls short by approximately €63.18 billion.
The most significant climate investment in Budget 2024 is the new Future of Ireland Fund with an initial input of ¤4 billion and a commitment to contributions equating to 0.8 per cent of GDP annually between 2024 to 2035. This amounts to €4.3 billion this year. Budget 2024 estimates that by 2035 the fund will grow to €100 billion.
On these projections, this fund is a notable contribution to the €120 billion needed to execute Cap 23. However, Ireland’s GDP is estimated to grow on average by 3.3 per cent per annum.
On this basis, the fund will amount to €39.82 billion by 2030 and €78.82 billion by 2035, far short of the predicted €100 billion. Budget 2024 also commits €14 billion by 2030 for the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, through annual contributions of €2 billion. A further €3 billion is set aside for capital projects that contribute to achieving Ireland’s climate budgets.
In total, these commitments amount to €56.82 billion in climate focused governmental expenditure by 2030, ¤63.18 billion below the estimated €120 billion necessary to execute Cap 23. This demonstrates a misalignment between the Government’s budgetary spending and its Cap 23 commitments. Further, the Government’s ambivalent attitude is conspicuous from it terming the main fund to address Ireland’s climate commitments as the “Future of Ireland Fund”. Climate change is not a “future” issue, but an ever “present” threat. Amassing funds by 2030 in the hope that climate change will go away is not addressing the issue but leaving the problem to be addressed in the future. It puts present political palatability above the real urgency to address the climate crisis. Budget 2024 undermines Cap 23 and questions the Government’s sincerity to its climate commitments.
Imminent governmental action and expenditure to address climate change is required. Budget 2024 is not only unsatisfactory to meet Ireland’s 2030 commitments but signifies an alarming governmental attitude to the seriousness of climate change as a present world issue. – Yours, etc,
LUKE JAMES GIBBONS,
Claremorris,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – While the €1.1 billion in cuts to income tax and USC announced in the budget are welcome, it cannot be ignored that they are almost completely cancelled out by hikes in indirect taxation imposed by the Government in recent months.
Increases in excise on fuel and VAT on hospitality over the summer are estimated to raise just over €1 billion in 2024, out of the pockets of the very people who will benefit from the proposed cuts to income tax and USC.
Even if we assume that one-third of the increased VAT on hospitality is paid by tourists visiting the country (and this would be a rather large assumption), this would still mean that net tax reductions for Irish workers in 2024 would amount to no more than a paltry €300 million against total additional spending of €13.5 billion.
This represents an astonishing ¤45 increase in spending for every €1 net reduction in personal taxation.
Public spending is completely out of control and with this budget the Government has made it clear that it intends it to remain out of control, with taxation of modest incomes remaining at outrageous levels in order to foot the bill.
Thank heavens we have a Government which professes prudence and budgetary restraint. Where on earth would we be if we had a high-tax high-spend government led by Sinn Féin and the hard left? – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The €14 billion bumper package announced in this year’s budget will not allay the fears of those in the squeezed middle-income bracket.
Once again those who work and pay tax will see their incomes stagnate while others benefit, given the cost of living crisis and inflation crisis.
The reduction of USC by 0.5 per cent will benefit those between €30,000 and less than €75,000 only by an average of €6 per person, while those at the other ends of the scale will benefit by €35 and €17.
Then there is the disparity in giving 20 per cent once-off interest relief to 165,000 mortgage holders out of a total of approximately 700,000, while the European Central Bank (ECB) has pushed families, with increased interest rates, to the pin of their collars.
Childcare subsidies that were introduced will not take effect until September of 2024 leaving many working parents having to cut corners and household necessities even further.
Then there is the €2 billion spent on accommodation, welfare, medical, and other payments on Ukrainian refugees, increasing to a possible €2.5 billion in 2024, while we are in the midst of a housing and homeless crisis.
All of this paid for by the Irish taxpayers and businesses who are squeezed even further with increases in carbon taxes introduced last year, and in this budget, that will see further increases in fuel for the ordinary commuter and those involved in haulage and bus companies.
While Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty called the Minister for Finance’s budget one that “stuffed money into the pockets of landlords”, let me remind him of the number of landlords who have exited the market, 21,000 in 2022, because of increased costs, punitive taxes and ECB interest rate hikes, and vilification from his and other Opposition parties.
Some benefits, like energy credits, and increases in child benefits, should be targeted at those who really need them as opposed to those who can afford to pay or do without.
Any relief given to working families will be offset by geopolitical matters out of our control, like inflation, prices hikes on food, fuel and electricity.
The squeezed middle will find themselves, as usual, the proverbial meat in the sandwich, accruing very little but paying a lot. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTY GALLIGAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – I see that the recent budget has increased the price of 20 cigarettes to €16.75. You can get a very nice bottle of wine for that price. Is the Government trying to get people off the cigarettes and onto drink? – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CULLEN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – If the budget was intended to secure votes in the next general election, that will not happen. It’s a “let them eat cake” budget. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’CONNOR,
Cork.