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Issue with moderation on the 'Politics›Budget 2025 (or is it 2026 )' thread and claims made via PM
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09-10-2025 11:38PM#1
Hi,
I would like to raise a concern about the moderation that took place on the above thread. I am unfamiliar with the process so hoping I am raising this in the correct place.
Link to thread - https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058426180/budget-2025-or-is-it-2026/p6
See mod note added here :
The discussion that had taken place prior to this included funds that had been spent on IPAS and similar. This had relevance to the topic being discussed, as it was included as part of the Budget 2026
See here :
https://extra.ie/2025/10/08/news/irish-news/refugee-budget-e2bn-2026
Quote -
According to yesterday’s Budget documents: ‘€1.6billion is being allocated in contingency funding across International Protection Processing, International Protection Accommodation and Ukraine Accommodation for 2026.
Posters in the thread had raised concerns over the total cost which is coming in around 5 Billion -
A figure confirmed by Nick Delehanty
So cost IS a fair game topic inside a thread discussing the 2026 Budget.
Well, not according to @Seth Brundle
Seth proceeded to remove my post, the contents of which I will add here for clarity.
I raised concerns about where PUBLIC money was being spent and highlighted that records of Purchase Orders available through Gov.ie show large volumes of money going to LTD companies. When you search these companies up you see that their main shareholders are setup in the usual tax havens of Guernsey, Isle of man etc..
See example here
CAPE WRATH HOTEL UNLIMITED COMPANY, which operates under the trading name Citywest Hotel is owned by by Alva Glen Holdings Ltd,
Alva Glen Investments Ltd
27% owned by Hotel Developments Ltd (Guernsey)
10% owned by Green Hill Technology Ltd (British Virgin Islands)
17.5% combined owned by Brayden Ltd and Tamzin Ltd (Isle of Man)This means over 54% of Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited Company is owned primarily through offshore jurisdictions. TAX havens.
That was the main content of my last post.
This is a reasonable discussion for post Budget 2026 where new funding has been announced so people can discuss where their TAX Euros are going ESPECIALLY if those Euros are going to Tax haven setups designed to funnel money OUT of the country.
Seth deleted my post, along with others. I can't comment on what the other posts were but there certainly was no clear issue with what I was posting. I had read pretty much up to the point of my last post also and did not see any problem posts.
Seth can maybe provide some evidence here to those posts if he wishes.
So I reached out to Seth. The responses, well…. I will post the messages here.
So there were plenty of posts also discussing the VAT rate for Hospitality, dole increase etc.. Seth ignored these and made a flat-out lie here saying the topic was "Just dem foreigners". Nothing in the thread reflects that.
He also notes "he has enough to be doing without moderating a racist echochamber"This is a very serious accusation to make, and Seth has precisely zero evidence to back this up. I am very annoyed at this.
To be insinuated that I am engaging in a racist echo chamber for raising VALID concerns about spending post-budget is very frustrating.
If this were posted on a thread, would it merit a warning at the very least?
Anyway, I go back to try and reason -
Zero evidence once again to support the claims made by Seth such as the posts being about "why foreigners come here".
His 2nd point - he at the very least deleted my very much on-topic post, the contents of which I have added above.
His last statement as well is IMO nonsense. I've already outlined the content of the discussion.
Seth shows here (as a moderator of the politics forum) a staggering lack of understanding about the Budget that had just been released.
Then shuts down the conversation completely. Now I understand this is not a professional role but still as a moderator on Boards.ie Seth is representing Boards.ie and as such he could show a crumb of professionalism while acting in the role.
My main concern here is that from the above, it is hard to get away from the feeling that Seth has a very particular viewpoint here and is using his moderation to shut down any talk that comes within any distance of that topic.
Funny enough, you could call it creating an echo chamber.
His messages to me back that up as you can see he has inserted many claims about posts that were simply not true or at the very least I cannot see to be true.
Boards has been struggling and on a day like the budget you would expect to see higher than normal traffic in the politics forum - I don't normally post there myself but obviously the budget draws attention. There should be encouragement for discussion.
Boards is meant to be a place of discussion, where posters can share info and maybe learn something they didn't know before. Or at least that's what I think it should be.
Instead, we have the opposite here. I understand that moderators are unpaid and do likely face / see a lot of shite here but Seth is completely out of step here in my view.
The funny thing about this is just a few posts before on the thread I did ask this question -
And Seth bundles along and pretty much confirms the above.
You can't ask where your TAX Euros are going in regards to the IPAS and other setups because people like Seth will come along and call you a racist…Racist for not wanting to be taken for a ride by some incredibly wealthy people.. Right
I am not sure what to expect here but I felt I could not just let this slip by given the very serious accusations made and what I can only perceive to be a mod using their power to silence a topic they do not agree with.
Perhaps Seth was just having a bad day given the forum was likely more active than normal. If so, an acknowledgement by the mod in question that they overstepped the line would be greatly appreciated and we'll draw a line under it.
Thank you for your timePost edited by Spear on8
