14:26 – Domiciliary Care Allowance up by 20 euro to 380 per month
14:25 – Child support payment increase by €8 per week for under 12s and 16 per week for over 12s
14:24 – Working family payment also rising by 60 euro per week
14:23 – The back to school clothing and foot ware allowance is being extended to two and three year olds
14:22 – Fuel allowance will increase by €5 weekly to €38, with eligibility extended to all recipients of the working family payment
14:21- Extra 600m for the disability budget
14:20 – Increase in 220 acute hospital beds and expansion of diagnostic services, 280 community beds, extra 1.7m home support hours, 500 more nursing home places, Increased staffing of mental health services
14:19 – Extra 35,000 children set to benefit from the National Childcare Scheme
- Measures to improve Year 5 of pay for educators and school age children practitioners
- 2,300 extra childcare places through the Building Blocks programme
14:18 –
- 85m in additional funding to tackle bovine TB
- 20m extra for the ACRES scheme
- 20m for the continuation of the national sheep welfare scheme
14:17- 10.7 million increase in budget for sport Ireland, 3m of that will support establishment of League of Ireland football academies
14:16 – The pilot basic income scheme for artists is to be made permanent
14:15 – €357m for broadcasting to support TG4 and RTE reform……
14:14 – 1,717 additional SNAs in 2026
- 1,042 extra teaching posts including 860 additional special needs teachers
- Money to implement the DEIS+ plan
- Increase in the capitation rates paid to schools by €50 at primary and special and €20 for post primary
- 500 euro reduction in the student contribution fee
- Creating 1,100 new places for studying key health and social care professions
- Money for two new veterinary medicine colleges to almost double the number of vet graduates
- Establishment of a national artificial intelligence office to provide a focal point for AI development
14:05 – 1,000 trainee gardai in 2026
200 civilian gardai
19 million increase in the garda overtime budget
39m extra for the prisons service
11m extra for the courts service
14:01 – Increasing the carer’s allowance income disregard to 1000 euro for a single person or 2000 euro for a couple
14:00 – 10 euro per week increase in the social welfare payment for 1.5m people
13:59 – The social welfare Christmas Bonus for 1.5m people will be paid at a double rate of the normal payment
13:58 – 12.2BN FOR CAPITAL EXPENDITURE ON WATER AND WASTEWATER SERVICES
1.4bn to Uisce Eireann
13:57 – Housing budget of 11.3bn with 7.2bn in capital funding for new social homes, starter homes programme, urban regeneration, housing activation office, 17,000 grants to retrofit older people’s homes
13:56 – 19.1BN FOR CAPITAL INVESTMENT – INCREASE OF 2BN ON LAST YEAR
13:55 – 1BN CONTINGENCY FUND TO BE CREATED
13:54 – 12,500 ADDITIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR STAFF
3,370 IN HEALTH
2,600 IN EDUCATION
1,000 GARDAI
13:45 – Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe concludes and it’s now over to Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers for the rest.
13:31 – 50c added to a pack of 20 cigarettes with a pro rata increase on other tobacco products
13:30 – 5,000 euro VRT relief on electric vehicles extended to the end of December 2026
The benefit in kind on electric company cars will be 10,000€ in 2026, €5000 in 2027, €2,500 in 2028 and scrapped in 2029
13:29 – Carbon tax rises to 71€ per tonne from tomorrow for auto fuels and other fuels from the 1st of May 2026
Additional revenue is expected to be 121m in 2026 and will be ringfenced for climate projects
13:28 – The farm consolidation relief, farm restructuring relief, and young trained farmer reliefs are extended until the end of 2029
13:28 – The 481 film tax credit will be enhanced to provide a 40% rate for productions with a minimum spend of 1m on relevant visual effects work. Cap of 10m per production
13:27 – The Research and Development tax credit will increase from 30 to 35% and increasing the first year threshold from 75k to 87.5k
13:26 – The VAT rate for the food and catering businesses and hairdressing services to reduce to 9% from the 1st of July 2026, costing 232 million in its first year and 681m in a full year.
13:25 – 9% VAT rate cut on gas and energy extended to the end of December 2030
13:24 – Mortgage interest relief will extend for a further two years, with a reduced rate in the final year
13:23 – The renters tax credit is being extended to the end of 2028
13:22 – The minimum wage will rise by 65c an hour to €14.15ph
13:21 – Paschal Donohoe commits to make progressive changes on income tax, but not in this budget
The ceiling for the 2% band of USC will increase by 1,318 to 28,700 euro to take account of increased minimum wage
13:20 – A new derelict property tax will be created to replace the derelict sites levy – it will be charged at a rate of no less than 7%
13:20 – There will be an enhanced corporation tax deduction for certain costs incurred during the building of apartments of the conversion of non-residential buildings to apartments for those that have a commencement notice issued after tomorrow
13:19 – Pascal Donohoe expects a further 63,500 jobs in the Irish economy by the end of next year, with Ireland to remain at full employment and for inflation to run a little over 2%.
13:18 – The surplus this year is 10.2bn with a surplus next year of 5.1bn
13:17 – 24bn will be in the Future Ireland Fun and the Climate Nature Fund by end of next year rising to 40bn by end of the Governments term
13:16 – Additionally, The profits arising from homes that fall under Cost Rental Schemes are to be exempted from corporation tax for developments on or after the 8th of October
13:15 – VAT rate on the sale of completed apartments will drop to 9% from midnight tonight until the end of December 2030
13:14 – 5 billion for the Department of Housing next year including an extra 200m for Home Building Finance Ireland
13:11- Tax package is reduced by 150m in order to give targeted supports for the “most vulnerable”
13:10 – Budget 2026 is €9.4 billion with €8.1bn for public spending and a tax package of €1.3bn
13:00 – Government sources are spinning this budget as the largest capital investment in the history of the state, saying supports will be given to those who need it most.
There will be an extra 2 billion euro for the Department of Social Protection, funding a 10 euro a week increase in the state pension and social welfare rates.
Housing will see a 20 per cent boost to its budget, as will the disability sector
Things like the fuel allowance will be extended and there will be increases in the income disregard for the carer’s allowance.
The big calls will be the VAT reduction for the food elements of the hospitality sector, tax cuts for developers to build new apartments, and the lack of any income tax cuts for workers.
The carbon tax will increase on fuel, while there will be no one off electricity payments to households.
Paschal Donohoe will take to his feet shortly to give the full detail – with Jack Chambers set to follow around 1.45.
12:58 – The Finance Minister has entered the Dáil chamber where he will begin the Budget 2026 announcement in the coming moments.
