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A MASSIVE GIVEAWAY Budget was announced yesterday that included a major cost-of-living package, with a value of €2.2 billion, and a number of welcomed tax cuts.
Some once-off payments will be received before the end of the year while others will include backdated clauses. Others have already kicked in or were extended during yesterday’s announcement.
So, here’s what to expect in the year to come.
From 1 January, there will be an additional €12 to all weekly social welfare payments as well as double payments this month and at Christmas for long-term welfare recipients.
On the means-tested Carer’s Allowance, the means test disregard will increase to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple from next year. Maternity, paternity, adoptive and parents’ payments increasing by €15, also from 1 January.
In November, a €400 payment will be made to those who receive the Carers Support Grant, Disability Allowance, the Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and the Domiciliary Care Allowance.
St. Vincent DePaul welcomed the increases but said increased costs, such as energy, fuel, housing and childcare are “eroding” the money that recipients are left with.
“Households need to budget on a weekly basis and needed an adequate weekly increase in social welfare payments to reflect this,” Rose McGowan, SVP National President, said.
It was confirmed that two double child benefit payments will be made before Christmas and a €420 ‘baby boost’ scheme will be introduced for new parents after the birth of a child after 1 January.
The first double child benefit payment, which is paid monthly, will be made in November and the next will be paid out in December. Social Justice Ireland has taken issue with the fact that the base €140 rate was not increased for vulnerable and low-income families.
Unlike most of the other measures, increases in the excise duty on cigarettes came in at midnight. From today, the price of the most-popular packet of cigarettes is €18.05 after a €1 increase was announced yesterday. The excise duty hike is double the usual increase of 50c.
Increases kicked in, on a pro rata basis, for other tobacco products from midnight as well.
Separately, a tax on e-liquid – used in e-cigarettes and vapes – will be introduced in the middle of next year. The fee will be 50c for every millilitre of e-liquid. The delay with the introduction is to the challenges of introducing what’s essentially a new tax.
The average disposable e-cigarette has 2ml of e-liquid and costs €8. The introduction of the new tax will increase the cost to €9.23.
The Irish Heart Foundation and Vape Business Ireland, which represents vaping retailers, have welcomed both taxes.
The representative body said it helps improve oversight of the market but that it should be complemented with support measures to make sure vendors, who it says are normally SMEs, can stay in business.
The Heart Foundation said the fees will help to deter the growing number of young people from purchasing e-cigarettes without impacting existing users.
The Help-To-Buy scheme was extended until 2029 after it was due to conclude at the end of next year.
It supplies new homeowners a deposit for a newly-built house or apartment and it can also be granted on a once-off basis to applicants who are building their own home.
The rate of stamp duty applicable to residential property valued above €1.5 million has increase already to 6%. A higher rate of stamp duty on bulk acquisitions of houses increased from 10% to 15% with immediate effect after it was announced as well.
Separately, rent tax credits will increase to €1,000 per tenant next year, and it will be back dated to this year.
This means a couple who are renting a property can avail of €2,500 in total in rent supports. The rate credit was increased from €750.
Housing prevention charity Threshold has welcomed the housing measures but said it has concerns over the lack of funding for the HAP scheme, as rent prices “surpassed the HAP rates many years ago, HAP recipients are often having to make up the shortfall with money they do not have”.
The executive director of the Simon Communities, Wayne Stanley, said it was “extraordinary” that so much money could be expanded by Government this year but “so little done for those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis”.
Stanley also took issue with 10,000 social homes promised in this budget. “This is simply insufficient and we see another budget where the rhetoric of homelessness being a ‘top priority’ is not in evidence,” he said.
Speaking during a press conference yesterday, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said he believed the Government have “never been found wanting when it comes to funding out housing”, but acknowledged that problems did remain.
Carbon taxes will increase the price of petrol and diesel on Wednesday next week, adding at least 2c increase to the price of fuel.
Kevin McPartland, CEO of Fuels for Ireland – the lobby group for garages like Applegreen, Circle K and Maxol – told The Journal that Ireland is now paying the highest amount for fuel in the EU and his group are calling for a review.
He added that the review could look at how Ireland can use fuel alternatives but should also determine the impact of the pricing.
“In truth, increases to the price of fuel does not have any impact – good or ill – on retailers,” McPartland said. He added that the only people who are impacted are consumers as garages rely on other revenue streams like newspaper and coffee sales.
The carbon tax increases are part of planned, incremental hikes to the use of fuel and other activities that emit CO2 into the atmosphere. Receipts go into climate action schemes but on Monday a report found 39% of the funds are not being spent correctly.
Elsewhere in transport, children under 9 will be allowed to use public transport for free from next year and those over the age of 70, who hold a commuter pass, will be allowed to have a companion join them free of charge.
For electric vehicles, benefit in kind (BIK) reliefs will remain in place, while an exemption from BIK tax for installing an electric vehicle charger will also be introduced from next year.
An amendment to vehicle registration tax will also be made next year, to ensure electric commercial vehicles can qualify for the €200 rate.
Padraic Deane, Publisher of the AutoTrade.ie, told The Journal that more investment needs to be put into charging networks for electric vehicles first, before measures to increase carbon taxes and give exemptions to EV owners are introduced.
“Their logic is again wrong,” Deane said, adding that higher taxes on cars need to be paired with better public transport systems and alternatives.
The reduced 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity will be extended until 30 April 2025. The cut was initially introduced to assist with the cost of living as energy prices increased in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.
Additionally, all households are to get a €125 energy credit this year and another next year. Eoin Clarke of Switcher.ie, a free energy company comparison website, says that energy prices are still very high and “nowhere near” prices seen before 2022.
In addition to the energy credits, a further €300 lump sum will be made to recipients of the fuel allowance this November.
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Pumps go up in 5…4…3…2….1… and they won’t be coming down that’s for sure
@kevinhunt101: that’s very true. beef prices up too
@kevinhunt101:
Fuel prices increase…VAT increases both on retail and pump purchace.
The garage still only makes between 10 -15 cent p/l
@kevinhunt101: This in a nut shell is why we should be going electric…..no more dependence of spikes with petrol prices
@Peter Hughes: since we are already buying 20% of our electricity from europe how do you not see it rising?… with every venture being objected I dont see how we get to a point where we are sufficient. Wind farms are being objected because of the “not in my back garden” group. Fossil fuels plants are being closed due to polution but not being replaced. Ardnacrusha hydro plant floods the shannon yearly. Solar is not that viable in whole sale for us. nuclear albeit is the most logical, but is the one most feared even though our imported electricity comed from England and France’s nuclear sites
We don’t have the capacity in this country if everyone was to go electric.
I smell a right conspiracy.
@John Quill: no one mentioned weapons of mass destruction yet. Troops getting ready, planes on way and drones. Yeah yanks need a war all right!
I’m starting to believe that the next world defining moment will start in that region, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel, all those countries have very close ties to either the US, EU, Russia or China. We like to think cool heads in modern society will stop any chance of human fatalities ever reaching into the millions again in global conflicts, but human history paints a different picture. Surely I’m wrong,, we as a species couldn’t be that stupid to allow our leaders take humanity into another global conflict, could we? But then when you look at who is running some of the worlds most powerful countries maybe it is possible,, scary thought….
@Devilsavocado: I think you answered your own question. The greed of the richest 1% will be the downfall of man.
@Peter Cavey: just to point out, the income level of the top 1% world wide is like 32,000 dollars…. So the average earner in Ireland is a member of the top 1% in the world. The richest 1% are absolutely responsible for the bulk of the world’s problems, but we don’t often see the fallout from our own actions.
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: okay, the top 0.1%, you know what I mean.
Someone’s about to get Freedom just as we head to an election.
Elections coming up. No US President fails to get relected if they are a war president.
Unfortunetly Millions of Iranians will pay the price.
@Niallers: yep, American citizens will vote for war every time. The only way I see this changing is if war visits their own shores to show them what they’re actually voting for. Nah they still wouldn’t change.
@Niallers: Trump’s base are anti-war. He may as well pull out of the election if he goes to war. He’s well aware of it too. How many times have you seen this now since the beginning of 2017? If you have been paying attention then you’ll have noticed a pretty clear pattern emerge. I wouldn’t get too excited about the prospect of war if I were you.
Thanks CIA.
Has that man ever spoken the truth. His fascism trial is rolling along nicely.
@Paul Furey: Fascism Trial?
Its the attacks mixed with complete uncertainty of how Trump will respond that drives up prices. The reaction wouldn’t be so “knee jerk” under another president.
@Dan: Nothing uncertain about it – there’ll be no reaction at all. The only thing Trump has actually done is engage in a trade war with China, even then he hasn’t actually imposed half of the tariffs he’s mentioned.
Higher oil prices make it more profitable to extract shale oil in the US so he has a vested interest in allowing the prices to rise (to a point). He’ll mouth off and do nothing as has been his modus operandi since getting elected.
@Dan: Sorry Dan but you’re a d0pe. He’s a non interventionist. He has proved that over and over again. Is it lack of awareness of what’s happening in the world or perhaps TDS that makes you say such things? Id love to know.
Saudi’s suffering from low fuel prices , this be a good way of getting a boost in money terms. There are low Frequency blockers this drones use to prevent this .
Saudis, Emiratis and Qataris buying billions in arms to expend in stone age Yemen at little or no risk of retaliation … until now. According to the UN there are 10K direct casualities in Yemen and at least 40K wounded with up to 10 Million civilians at risk from famine, disease and civil rights abuses. Trump’s response is ‘lock and load’ rhetoric to escalate the situation because stock markets don’t like retaliation!!!
Time for some freedom to be delivered to Iran, who will somehow get the blame for this with the Saudi’s and Israel pulling Trump and the US puppet strings….
@Michael Patrick Newell: I think the US will quickly come to the realisation that fighting Persians in Iran is a different proposition to Arabs in Iraq. On a tactical level Iran should be no match but what to do after is a question the US has failed or refused to answer since the end of the Second World War.
What will an increase in price for gas at the pumps do for Trumps re-election chances?
@Gavin Tobin: Perhaps that’s why Bolton’s friends did it.
Peace full Trump ,a yes
Release strategic reserve….. We’ll be grand by tomorrow…..
Is it just me or is someone getting carried away a wee bit ?
There goes the element of surprise
have your say