Irish Examiner view: Jim Gavin crisis overshadows Budget 2026
Micheál Martin and public expenditure minister Jack Chambers with Jim Gavin at the announcement on September 9 that he would be Fianna Fáil's presidential candidate. Picture: Niall Carson/PA
This year’s event has been a little different, however, and not just because an increase in the price of cigarettes is no longer the conversation piece it was back in the heyday of smoking.
Running in parallel with the debates on tax bands and pension increases is the ongoing controversy of Jim Gavin’s abrupt departure from the presidential race.
A budget has rarely been debated in the shadow of such a crisis in one of the governing parties — and a crisis is what it is.
With the former Dublin GAA boss seen as Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s choice for the Áras nomination, the toxic fallout from Sunday’s shock announcement has settled on the Fianna Fáil leader.
One of Mr Martin’s constituency and party colleagues, Séamus McGrath, described the selection of Mr Gavin as “poor judgement”.
Another Cork Fianna Fáil TD, Christopher O’Sullivan, said “due diligence clearly wasn’t done”.
Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East James O’Connor went further again.
He stated that Mr Martin and public expenditure minister Jack Chambers had put “extensive pressure” on Fianna Fáil TDs and senators to select Mr Gavin, who had then been subsequently thrown “under a bus”.
By any standards, these are extraordinary attacks on a party leader, and Wednesday’s meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party promises to be a lively one.
Did the budget come at exactly the right time for the Taoiseach, then?
It could certainly be argued that he and his party benefited from a lucky bounce of the ball when it comes to the scheduling of Dáil business.
The reaction of the opposition parties to the financial provisions announced was hardly a shock — Sinn Féin finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said ordinary people had been “left out in the cold” by the budget, for instance.
But those parties would surely have preferred an ordinary day’s business in the Dáil to haul the Taoiseach over the coals about his choice for president. Instead, budget statements swallowed up time that could otherwise have been spent making hay with Fianna Fáil’s internal crisis.
The provisions of Budget 2026 deserve attention in their own right, of course. The traditional late-night queues at Filling stations may have seen a marginal uptick in business late yesterday due to the announced fuel price hikes (2.5c per litre on diesel and 2.1c per litre on petrol), but other changes may be of more consequence.
Vat on catering businesses and on hairdressing services has been cut from 13.5% to 9%, for instance, and €500 cut from the contribution fee for third-level students.
Does one of the budget provisions constitute a positive move in the housing crisis?
A new derelict property tax will replace the derelict site levy and is to be charged at a rate not lower than 7% of the market value of the property. So it will be equal to or greater than the rate at which the current levy is charged.
The fact that it will supersede the old levy serves to underline the failure of the older provision but that is a matter for another day. The new tax is welcome, but critics point out that properties are to be identified next year and a register of properties compiled the following year. Consequently, the tax may not even be imposed until 2028. That sounds like a missed opportunity no matter who is taoiseach at that point.
Fans of rollicking bonkbusters were saddened in recent days by the death of Jilly Cooper, one of the queens of the genre. She passed away after a fall at her home, aged 88.
Cooper had a long career as a writer, famously earning a column on married life when she charmed a Times editor at a 1960s dinner party.
Her non-fiction books ranged in topics from working life to relationships, and she was also a successful writer of short stories.
However, a string of bestselling novels made her reputation. In the early 1980s, when her husband Leo’s business faltered — he ran a military history publishing company — the family home was threatened with repossession.
Cooper duly put pen to paper and came up with in 1985, which became a huge success.
Her account of drink-fuelled shenanigans among the horsey set in fictional Rutshire spawned several sequels, most titled with an eye to the single entendre. and give a good idea of the tone.
The books sold an approximate 11m copies in Britain alone, a staggering success by any standards, while there have also been TV adaptations, including a popular Disney+ version of 'Rivals' broadcast last year.
TV shows and books alike gave fans a new heart-throb in Rupert Campbell-Black, a dashing hero in the Heathcliff mould, though considerably more forthright in activities and appetites.
Cooper was a favourite among journalists for her quotability, not to mention her generosity: Reporters were invariably offered plenty of champagne when interviewing her at home.
It would be wrong to think of her as frivolous in her approach, however.
In 1999, Cooper survived the train crash in Ladbroke Grove in London which killed 31 people. She crawled through a derailed carriage with a manuscript and kept an appointment at the Ritz.
One of a kind.
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