It was bad news for smokers but good news for families, first-time buyers, and landlords in today's budget announcement.
The Finance Minister, Michael Noonan delivered his speech just after 1 pm this afternoon where he outlined a budget package of €1.3 billion, three to one in favour of spending over tax cuts.
Here is our quick guide to what happened today:
1. Parents working fulltime will be eligible for a subsidy of up to €80 per month, depending on your income. The highest levels of subsidy will be provided to those on the lowest incomes, around 8 thousand euro a year. Families with a household income of up to €47,500 euro NET income are entitled to the subsidy.
2. Half a per cent has been chopped off the Universal Social Charge
3. One billion euro every year will be added into a 'rainy day fund' every year from 2018
4. From midnight tonight cigarettes will cost over 11 euro
5. A sugar tax will be introduced from April 2018
6. All weekly social welfare payments will increase by 5 euro
7. An extra 4,500 public services workers to be announced - this includes teachers, nurses, and gardai.
8. Ireland's 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate will not be changed
9. It's forecasted that there will be 43,000 more jobs at the end of 2017 across all sectors.
10. Homeowners can rent a room out for €14,000 a year without paying tax (up from €12,000)
11. There’s going to be an extra €28 million for emergency homeless accommodation.
Childcare
Reports in the
Independent show that the Affordable Childcare Scheme will be paid directly to the registered childcare provider. A child in care for 40 hours a week is expected to receive €80 a month towards the cost. The Labour Party's
Spokesperson for Children, Jan O'Sullivan, says she believes the scheme should have gone even further;
"What is really disappointing to me is the amount of money allocated to it, which is only €35 million. This is really not at all enough in order to make the step change we need in childcare. It seems there will be a targeted scheme AND a universal scheme, but really for that amount of money we are not going to get a huge amount into the childcare services area. There also seems to be no attempt to address the low pay in the sector which we, in the Labour Party would have addressed. Overall it is very disappointing in terms of expectations. It was a miss in terms of a significant investment in childcare."
Help to buy
Mr Noonan has also introduced measures to ease the rental crisis including increasing the tax-free amount people can earn through renting rooms in their home. First-time buyers were also the winners today. They are now entitled to an income tax rebate of up to €20,000 to fund their deposit on NEW homes. It was part of a new help to buy scheme. This scheme will only be available to those taking out a mortgage of at least 80 per cent of the purchase price.
So now it is time for ALL about the arguments over who is the most deserving. Nobody is every truly happy on budget day, and everyone feels squeezed by austerity.
What do you think of how the childcare scheme was allocated? Let us know if you are the squeezed middle and if you still feel as squashed!
