Let G = (V, E) be a simple graph. Let alpha and IR be the independence number and upper irredundance number of G respectively. In this paper, we prove that for any graph G of order n with maximum degree Delta greater than or equal to 1, IR(G) - alpha(G) less than or equal to Delta-2/2Delta n. When Delta = 3, the result was conjectured by Rautenbach.