Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is taking to his feet this lunchtime to reveal details of budget 2023.
The 11 billion euro package has been described as a giveaway budget, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the financial crash.
Read the live feed below….
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14.34 Conclusion Of Speech By Minister Michael McGrath
- “There is a lot to be thankful for, our health, our freedom and the bounce-back in the economy, but it is a time of great change and turmoil across the world”.
- “As a government we will do the very best that we cant to support you through the weeks and months ahead”
- “Our shared hope has been the bedrock of our resilience over the past three years to overcome the challenges we have faced, and we will continue to do so”.
14.30 Shared Island
- 100m euro for the shared island fund
- 500m under the NDP out to 2025
14.29 Gaeilge
- 1.25m to support Irish as a living language in the Gaeltacht
14.28 Arts
- 450m additional core funding
- 90m temporary funding for arts, tourism, culture and media to help that sector recover from Covid
14.27 Aid
- An increase of 100m euro for Irish Aid
- The Official Development Assistance will be more than 1.2bn in 2023
- 75m of that will go to humanitarian needs in Ukraine
14.26 Defence
- 1.2bn total spend
- Extra 400 permanent Defence Force members recruited in 2023
- Money to include pay and allowance enhancements for the membership
- 35m increase in the capital allocation for the defence forces in part used to fund primary radar capabilities
14.24 Justice
- 1,000 new Gardaí into Templemore next year
- 430 Garda civilian staff recruited
- 200 new recruits will enter Templemore every three months over the coming years
- There will be a 5m increase in the Garda overtime budget to over 100m
14.23 Agriculture
- 238m being allocated from the Brexit reserve fund to cushion agriculture from the impacts of Brexit
14.23 Ukrainian Response
- 11m for the continued response to the refugee crisis from Ukraine and housing refugees
14.22 Rural Funding
- 390m for rural and community development
14.22 Broadband
- Up to 185,000 households to be passed by the National Broadband Plan next year
14.22 Transport
- 2.6bn for transport to progress busconnects, metrolink and dart+
14.21 Farmers
Agri-climate rural scheme which will support up to 50,000 farmers
14.19 Energy Efficiency
- 337m for grants for energy efficiency. This will fund 37,000 home energy upgrades
- New low cost loan for residential retrofits has been introduced
14.17 Ukraine Enterprise Crisis Scheme
- 200m for vulnerable firms in manufacturing and internationally traded services.
14.15 Apprenticeships
- There will be funding for an extra 4,800 additional apprentice placements
14.13 Education
- 686 additional teachers to support those with special needs
- An additional 1,194 SNAs bringing the number to 20,300
- Reduction in the pupil teacher ratio by 1 point to 23:1 with 370 extra teaching posts
- Free school books for all recognised primary schools in the free education system from September 2023
14.12 Covid
- 439m will be provided for the ongoing response to Covid-19
14.08 Health
- Total budget of 23.4bn (1.15bn increase in core funding)
- Delivery of 650 acute and community beds by end of 2023
- Funding to recruit 6,000 additional staff to the health service (builds upon two record years of recruitment)
- 225m in extra money to tackle waiting lists – total budget of 443m
- 5m for oral health services
- Removing hospital inpatient charges for all patients
- Extending provision of free GP care to more than 430,000 people
- Expanding free contraception to women aged 16-30
- IVF funding
- 138m for disability services
- 150m to support older people living at home, national dementia strategy
- 58m for mental health (14m for continued provision of emergency mental health care)
14.07 Homelessness
- 215M for homelessness services
14.07 Housing
- Next year, 6.2bn to Department of Housing (3.5bn capital investment)
- 1.7bn for housing to deliver social housing build targets of 9,100
- 215m for the local authority affordable purchase scheme, AHB cost rental and shared equity scheme to deliver 5,000 affordable homes next year
- 87m for retrofits in 2023
- 930m for water services
14.01 Childcare
- 25% reduction in the cost of childcare under the national childcare scheme at cost of 121m
- Will save up to 175 a month for families
14.00 Care
- Domiciliary care allowance increased by 20.50
14.00 Fuel Allowance
- Income threshold for fuel allowance will increase from 120 to 200 above state pension
- The weekly fuel allowance means limit to 500 euro for single person and 1000 for a couple over 70
13.59 Energy
- 60m to local authorities
- 110 to health funded bodies for energy costs
13.59 Schools
- 100m for schools to deal with energy costs
- 10m for third level institutes
13.58 Transport
- 20% off public transport for all
- 50% off with youth travel card
13.57 Students
- 1,000 euro reduction in student contribution
- Double payment of SUSI grant
- 1,000 euro increase to postgrad fee contribution grant
- Reduction in student fees of 500 euro
- Increase of between 10 and 14 per cent in student grant
- Postgrad grant will increase by 500 euro
13.57 Carers
- 500 euro payment for carers and those with a disability in November
- 200 euro on the living alone allowance
13.56 Working Families
- 500 lump some on working family payment
- Double child benefit payment in November
- Working family payment thresholds up 40 euro a week
- Qualified child allowance up 2 euro a week
13.55 Welfare
- Lump sum cost of living double social welfare payment in October
- Christmas bonus confirmed
- 12 euro across the board increase in social welfare
13.53 Fuel Allowance
- Fuel allowance lump sum of 400 euro
13.50 Electricity Credit
- 600 euro electricity credit for all households
- First payment before Christmas and two in the new year
13.48 Conclusion Of Speech From Minister Donohoe
- “We need to do more – build more homes, improve public services and respond to challenge of climate change…but we can”
- “The hard work of the Irish people has prepared us for these challenges”
- “Our citizens an employers need help and this budget aims to give this help”
- “We can have confidence in our future”
13.47 National Reserve Fund
- Will be directing 2bn into National Reserve fund this year and 4bn in 2023
- Don’t fund additional permanent expenditure
- Provides the state with additional firepower to deal with challenges in future
13.44 Corporation Tax
- Ireland signed up to two pillar solution to address tax challenges arising from digitalisation
- Co-ordinated multi-lateral action is best approach
- Need to be cognizant of reliance on corporation tax
- Nearly 1 in every 8 euro comes from the corporation tax from a small number of the same firms
- Excess receipts could amount to between 8bn and 10bn this year
- Intend to start replenishing National Reserve Fund with some of these receipts to prepare for future challenges and to run a surplus
13.39 Tobacco
- Pack of 20 cigarettes up 50c and pro-rata increase on other tobacco products
13.39 Bank Levy
- Bank levy extended for another year to raise 87m per annum
13.39 Windfall Tax
- Ireland to be part of EU windfall tax approach but will go it alone if needed
13.37 Film Industry
- Explore opportunities for Ireland in unscripted production centre to encourage international firms to locate here
- Extending key employment engagement programmed until 2025
- Extending Special Assignee Relief Programme to 2025
13.36 VAT
- VAT on defibrillators reduced to 0% from Jan 1st
- 0% of VAT will apply to hormone replacement and nicotine replacement therapies
13.36 Newspapers
- VAT on newspapers reducing to 0% from Jan 1st 2023
13.35 Hospitality
- 9 per cent VAT rate on hospitality will continue until 28th Feb 2023
- It will go to 13.5% after that
13.34 Licencing
- Halving of the cost to apply for a Special Exception Order for late night venues
- Down from 110 to 55 euro
13.34 Cider
- 50% excise relief to small independent producers of cider and pear cider
13.31 Business Supports
- Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) from Revenue to help businesses which will give back 40% of increased cost of electricity bill Monthly cap of 10,000€
- Will be calculated by comparing average unit prices from 2021 to 2022
- Businesses will be required to register with scheme
- Eligibility criteria requires an increase of over 50% on bills to qualify
- Small Benefit Exemption increased from €500 to €1,000 in current tax year
13.30 Agriculture
- Five tax reliefs will be extended
- Young Trained farmer and farm consolidation stamp duty reliefs, farm restructuring CGT relief, young trained farmer and registered farm partnership stock reliefs
- Accelerated capital allowances for building modern slurry storage facilities
13.28 Carbon Tax
- Carbon tax increase of €7.50 a tonne will go ahead as planned on October 12th
- Will put up petrol and diesel by 2c a litre
- However, the Government is reducing the National Oil Reserves Agency levy to 0% to offset the cost
- This is worth 2c a litre
13.27 Concrete Levy
- To pay for the Mica redress scheme a levy on concrete blocks, pouring concrete and some other concrete products
- It’s expected to be a rate of 10% from April 2023 and will raise 80m annually
13.26 Stamp Duty
- The residential development stamp duty refund scheme is being extended to the end of 2025
13.26 Home Tax
- There will be a new Residential Zoned Land Tax
- Local authorities to publish draft maps in November
13.25 Vacant Homes
- Vacant Homes Tax introduced
- Will apply to homes which are occupied for less than 30 days a year
- Will be charged at a rate three times the Local Property Tax for the home and will be self-assessed
13.23 Renters / Landlords
- A new tax credit for renters of €500 a year confirmed
- 400,000 to benefit, can be claimed for 2022 and 2023
- Can also be claimed in respect of rent claimed this year
- Further details in budget documentation
- The pre-letting expenses for landlords is being doubled to €10,000 and the time a property must be vacant reduced from 12 to 6 months
13.23 Help To Buy
- Help to Buy extended at current rates until the end of 2024
13.22 USC / Income Tax
- The second USC rate band (2% rate) will increase from €21,295 to €22,920 to take account of minimum wage increase of 80c per hour
- USC concession for those with a medical card earning less than 60k is being extended for another year
- Minister signals future move towards a third rate of income tax. Further analysis to take place on a new third rate of income tax with review published before next year’s Summer Economic Statement. Donohoe says significant lead in time needed but could be done by Jan 2024
13.20 – Carers
- Home Carer Tax Credit being increased by €100
13.19 Income Tax
- 1.1bn income tax package
- 3,200€ increase in the cut off rate to higher tax to €40,000
- The main tax credits (personal, employee, earned income) are being raised by €75
13.17 First Measures Announced
- Excise rate reductions of 21 cent on petrol and 16 cent per litre on diesel and 5.4c per litre in Marked Gas oil extended until 28th February 2023
- 9% VAT rate for electricity and gas extended until 28th February 2023
13.10 Key Figures
- Public debt amounts to 44k per person in Ireland – 225bn
- Cost of one off measures in the budget will be 4.1 billion
- Core budget measures of 6.9bn
- Total budget of 11bn
- By 2025, debt ratio projected to be 73% – lowest level since 2009
13.02 The Finance Minister begins to announce the first details of Budget 23
- “Budget 2023 is and must be a cost-of-living Budget” says Finance Minister.
- “My department now updates its forecast to headline inflation at 8.5% for 2022 and just over 7% for 2023”.
- The forecasts for ‘core’ inflation have been revised up to 5.25% for this year and 4.5% for 2024.
