Leader of the Independent Ireland Party Michael Collins TD has described aspects of Budget 2026 as a 'misers charter profoundly lacking in ambition and vision.'

The TD for Cork South-West went on to accuse Finance Minister Paschal Donohue and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers of acting like 'overseers of a ruthless regime of negligence and indifference toward Ireland's workers, be they rural or urban, farmer or white collar, by forcing them to continue their employment under a tax relief system that operates like a fiscal strait jacket.'

He added, 'In broad terms this was a Budget that could only muster the political will to offer marginal but ultimately inconsequential benefits to some of the most vulnerable; no benefit to others such as workers seeking changes to the tax bands, and delayed benefits to entire sectors such as hospitality and food-led services.'

'In delivering it, both ministers have also ensured that our wet pubs have been left bereft of assistance while our inshore fishermen have been completely abandoned despite the fact that they continue to endure a generational threat to their viability caused by quota limits that no self-respecting Government would allow to be imposed on their own people.'

'It is now clear that this is a government that is always looking for get-out clauses in the social contract, which it sees as little more than a financial shackle around its neck.'

'Working families living through a cost-of-living crisis, family farms struggling to meet ballooning input costs and young people trying to access third level will surely come away from this Budget feeling distinctly under-appreciated.

'I and my party will be taking the time to forensically dissect the Budget in greater detail over the next few days and weeks. But for now, our sense is clear; this was a Budget of bluster and BS from a Government that has absolutely no clue just how difficult life has become for so many in our society.'