The opposition immediately claimed this price hike will boost the lucrative criminal market in smuggled cigarettes, but if taxes were not increased, the Government would be castigated for making it easier to adopt the habit of smoking.

With the benefit of a few hours’ distance, yesterday’s offering now looks like a budget aimed at the demographic which is feeling the squeeze of the cost-of-living crisis — the mythical Middle Ireland. Is this the Middle Ireland of working families trying to get children through school and college while grappling with mortgages? Or the Middle Ireland of single workers striving to get on the property ladder? Or that of landlords looking for a tax break?

Middle Ireland can be all things to all men, and there is a sense that yesterday’s budget was something similar — something for everyone, offending no-one.

Or almost no-one. Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe claimed this was a budget for “building a better
future for this country”.

That starts, he said, with “making sure Ireland is one of the best places on earth in which to be a child”.

It would be interesting to hear a view on that theory from one of the families dealing with the aftermath of the spinal surgery scandal in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, or from any of the 4,000 homeless children in the State. Aspiring for better is laudable, but did Budget 2024 protect Ireland’s most vulnerable children?

Mr McGrath’s announcement of a €100bn wealth fund to meet the future spending demands of an ageing population is another welcome move, but the obvious question is whether the Government will benefit from such a long-term decision in the next election.

Those are the polls which will tell us Middle Ireland’s true opinion of yesterday’s budget.

A true friend to humanity

The death of Irish-American philanthropist Charles Francis ‘Chuck’ Feeney at 92 marks the end of a remarkable life.

Mr Feeney provided more than 6,000 grants and donations worth an estimated $8bn (€7.56bn) to various causes across the world, including €1.8bn to different projects across Ireland.

He gave millions to third-level educational institutions across Ireland, and those institutions in 2012 decided to give Mr Feeney an unprecedented joint honorary doctorate to recognise his contribution to Irish education. He also gave considerable sums to children’s charity Barnardos and the Irish Hospice Foundation.

For many years, Mr Feeney made his contributions in secret through his company, Atlantic Philanthropies. Apart from his natural reticence, he reasoned that there was a possibility his anonymous funding of a project might be matched by another sponsor who would seek to attach their name to that project.

In 2020, he shut Atlantic Philanthropies because it had achieved the goal of giving away all its funds.

Mr Feeney’s generosity made a material difference to thousands of lives all over the world and he sought nothing in return. His modesty stands in sharp contrast with the bluster and selfishness to be seen among other super-wealthy figures of the current moment, who seem more interested in headlines than humanity.

Keeping trust is key

A recent audit of the Kerry Diocesan Youth Service (KDYS) makes for disquieting reading — the report made 29 adverse findings against the Killarney-based voluntary youth work organisation, including five categorised as “high risk”.

The report criticised loose financial controls in relation to budgets, online banking, and the counting and recording of cash and cheques; the audit itself was carried out by Tusla to establish if funds that organisation was providing to KDYS were being spent appropriately and in compliance with service agreements.

This news comes after the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority appointed inspectors to carry out a statutory investigation into the Peter McVerry Trust two weeks ago.

In July, we learned from the 2022 report of the Charities Regulator that only three-fifths of charities filed annual reports detailing their finances on time.

The wider question of whether organisations such as these should have to provide so much aid to vulnerable sections of society rather than State agencies is one for another day. As matters stand, the work being done by many charities and voluntary organisations is so central to the functioning of Irish society that one shudders to think what would happen if they were not available.

It is understandable that those with the energy and passion to make a difference in addressing a specific social issue may not always be experts in administration or finance.

But for the charitable sector to maintain its credibility and carry on doing such important work, it must also comply with financial controls.