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IT WAS THE seventh austerity-filled Budget in a row, and despite some small concessions, it was as tough as any of its predecessors.
Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin announced €2.5 billion worth of taxes and cuts in today’s Budget, with the Departments of Health and Social Protection bearing the brunt.
Here, in numbers, is a roundup of some of the measures announced today.
0 – Percentage change to income tax, the Universal Social Charge and VAT on consumer goods. Phew.
€2.50 - The cost per item in prescription charges, with a cap of €25 per family per month. The charge originally began as a levy of 50c in 2010.
9 – The number of drinking hours available between the announcement that the cost of a pint is going up by 10c and the introduction of said measure.
9 – The special reduced VAT rate for tourism, which is to be retained for next year after it proved successful.
10 cent – The increase in the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes from midnight tonight. Bottles of wine will increase by 50 cent from tonight.
41 – The new higher single unified rate of tax on DIRT accounts.
€100 – The amount of money that new claimants of the dole aged 24 and under will receive each week from 1 January 2014.
130 - The percentage increase in the number of people receiving Jobseeker’s payments between 2008 and 2012 – working out at almost 200,000 people – according to Brendan Howlin in his speech.
€230 - The amount that maternity benefit is to be standardised at from January next year. The current rate lies between €217 and €262.
€850 – The amount of the Bereavement Grant, given to people based on their PRSI contributions, to help pay for a funeral. The payment is being abolished to save an estimated €17 million.
1,250 – The number of new classroom and resource teachers for the school system to be recruited in the coming years. Minister Howlin emphasised that class sizes will not be increased at either primary or post-primary level.
€37 million – The estimated cost of providing free GP care for all children aged 5 and under, in the Government’s first step towards providing universal free doctor care.
€44 million – The amount the Government says it will save by abolishing the telephone allowance for older people. The move has been criticised by groups representing older people who say it will make them more isolated and lonely.
€113 million – The amount of money Brendan Howlin estimates will be saved by a review of all medical cards to cancel any ineligible or redundant cards which people may have.
€150 million – The amount of money that Irish banks will have to contribute to the Exchequer every year under a new bank levy.
€290 million – The reduction in spending in the Department of Social Protection alone – the largest single area of public spending.
€500 million – The amount by which the public sector paybill is to be reduced next year – despite the fact that the Government said today it will be hiring in schools, hospitals and An Garda Síochána.
€2 billion – The amount that NAMA will invest in the Irish commercial property market over the next few years.
€2.5 billion – The total amount the Government aimed to save through taxes and cuts in today’s Budget. The figure is a reduction on last year’s figure of €3.1 billion.
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That’s the way to do it
@Lambo Moonski: yeah extrajudicial murder. Right on
@Lambo Moonski: Good man, showing up your complete ignorance. A man getting rid of all opposition. No wonder these people get into power with the uneducated and dim-witted masses.
@TheHeathen: As if the idiots we voted in are any better
@Vincent: When did an Irish elected official condone extrajudicial murder?
@Vincent: Its not like we see anyone in government going around with a hit list and people then going out and shooting them. Kop onn.
@Larissa Nikolaus:You’re kidding right ?
I would be afraid to buy aspirins in that country
@FlopFlipU: yet many of the infamous no go areas are now safe to walk through.
@Greg Blake: It’s just all other areas that are unsafe now!
@FlopFlipU: Nah, as long as you buy your illegal drugs from the presidents friends you’d be okay..
The Wild West is Alive and Well in the Phillipines !
Can’t wait for Netflix to get on This!!!
The Philippines not a country to go if you want to survive
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: I was there for a few weeks last year, it was grand, not dangerous at all
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: I was there this year and it was perfectly safe. One of the nicest places I’ve visited
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: heading over in November. Can’t wait. Nice break before Christmas
@Richy: enjoy, don’t make any enemies, by the sounds of it all they have to do is tell a cop you have drugs and you’re dead
He’s only doing what Trump wishes he could do.
Kill anyone who gets in his way!
I wonder if they’re both related.
Pair of Nut Jobs.
latin american countries can’t seem to make progress to clean up the drug gangs. with the killing of judges and so on. duterte would be long gone.
@Sean Conway: lucky so that philippines is in Asia.
@Sean Conway: I’m the idiot yet it’s you that doesn’t know where Philippines is located. Nice one.
@B9xiRspG: I think Sean was making a comparison to areas where drug lords reign. They we’re heading down that road. He didn’t say it was in the americas.
@Sean Conway: you clearly think that the Philippine islands are in central America…Clearly ….
@Greg Blake: The philippine gangs are not as ruthless as the latin american gangs. sorry for not making it more clear.
@Joe O’riordan: no he clearly said in the last sentence that Duterte would be long gone if he was in charge of a Latin American country.
The bloke is a psycho.
Seems to me he has the attitude of someone sniffing the bejaysus out of it.
Funnily enough he hasn’t shot his own son yet.
have your say