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MICHAEL NOONAN BEGAN his sixth budget statement saying the Irish economy is in ‘good shape’ and that his government plans to cut taxes and spend more next year.
The first of this minority government, Budget 2017 – with a larger-than-anticipated package of €1.3 billion – has a stamp of approval from both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
But just how does this year’s budget, delivered this afternoon, affect you? Read on to find out…
Here are the main details of this year’s budget: Finance
Noonan faced the Dáil first, giving details of how Budget 2017 would impact Ireland’s tax system, leading with a heavy warning about how a hard Brexit could negatively impact Ireland’s finances. He notes there will be €500 million worth of tax cuts.
USC
Three USC brackets will be reduced by half a percent:
1% will go down to 0.5%
3% rate will be 2.5%
5.5% bracket reduces to 5%
Min Noonan USC - the 1% will go down to 0.5%, the 3% rate will go down to 2.5% and the 5.5% rate will go down to 5% #Budget17
The rent-a-room relief is to be increased. With a higher tax ceiling of €14,000 (from €12,000), the government hopes to encourage homeowners to rent out a vacant room.
Landlords will also see an increase in their mortgage interest relief deductibility (from 75% to 80%).
The threshold for CAT will rise to €310,000 (to benefit those inheriting property, estates, money etc).
Sugar Tax
In April 2018, a tax on all sugar-sweetened drinks will be introduced – in line with when it is due to be implemented in the UK. A public consultation will begin today.
A new low-cost flexible loan fund worth €150 million will be established.
There will be an increase in farmers VAT flat-rate addition. It will jump from 5.2% to 5.4%.
The farm restructuring relief scheme will be extended to end-2019.
A new income averaging ‘step out’ for farmers to commence immediately. This means farmers pay tax on an average of five years’ income to balance it out. If they have a bad year, they’ll be able to opt to pay tax on that year alone now to lower their tax bill.
Bog owners and rights holders will be exempt from Capital Gains Tax under the raised bog restoration scheme.
There will be a new fishers tax credit of €1,270 per year (if you spend at least 80 days of the 365 at sea).
€1 billion annually will be set aside by governments, starting in 2019. The idea is to protect against Brexit or provide an initial shock absorption capacity if needed for other economic reasons.
Here are the main details of this year’s budget: Expenditure
Public Pay
There will be a fund of €290 million for partial-pay restoration agreed under the Lansdowne Road Agreement for civil and public servants who had cuts imposed after 2008.
Paschal Donohoe also said his government is proposing additional recruitment of close to 4,500 frontline staff – nurses, gardaí, teachers etc.
The old-age pension will be increased by €5 from March 2017.
Social Welfare
All social welfare payments will also rise €5 per week from March next year. This includes jobseekers’ benefits, the one-parent family payment and carers’, jobseekers’ and disability allowances. This comes at a cost of €301 million.
The Christmas Bonus for social welfare recipients will be increased to 85%.
Childcare
Early years funding will rise 35% from €345 to €465 million in 2017.
A new childcare scheme will be set up from September. The introduction of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme promises both means-tested subsidies, based on parental income, for children between six months and 15 years and universal subsidies for all children aged six months to three years. The subsidies will be paid for children and young people going to a Tusla-registered childcare provider.
The Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme and the pre-school scheme will be extended with a further €86 million provided for the full year costs.
The Access and Inclusion Model will also be rolled out with this €86 million to enable children with disabilities to take part in pre-school education.
€1.2 billion is to be provided to the Department of Housing to help tackle the current crisis with 47,000 new social housing units by 2021.
Capital allocation of €50 million for a local housing activation fund. The government wants this money (the fund is worth €200 million total) to provide 20,000 private homes by 2019.
There will be an extra €105 million for the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme and Rent Supplement (an increase of 220%). This will make the programme available to another 15,000 households.
The housing plan, Donoghoe said, will see the needs of 21,000 social housing applicants met next year.
There will also be another €28 million made available for emergency accommodation for homeless people. That means the allocation for 2017 is €100 million.
There will be an increase in spending of €497 million – bring total spend to €14.6 billion.
All children in receipt of domiciliary care allowance will now receive an automatic medical card.
€15 million to be added to the National Treatment Purchase Fund NTPF to help alleviate waiting lists.
The €25 cap on prescription charges for those over 70 years of age will be reduced to €20 from 1 March.
Education and Communication
An increase in spending of €458 million will allow for an extra 2,400 teaching posts – of which 900 will be resource teachers.
An extra €36.5 million will be made available for the higher and further education sector next year.
€15 million will be put into the National Broadband Plan next year.
Farming and Rural Development
There will be 500 new places on the Rural Social Scheme.
Farm Assist will be increased.
An extra €119 million will be given to the Department of Agriculture allowing for investment in Foodwise 2025.
The Rural Development Programme funding will rise by €107 million, including €25 million for a new animal welfare scheme (with a specific focus on sheep).
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When Bowies creative output started to suffer in the 80′s, Prince came in and filled that void magnificently. I always viewed Prince in similar terms to Bowie in the way they challenged the mainstream constantly with their music and image. One crumb of comfort can be taken from his premature demise and that is the thousands of unreleased material he wrote over the years and which fans can look foward to hearing in the future.
What is the obsession with celebrities when they pass away?We should be mourning scientists,Doctors,professors and not musicians.A note in a newspaper is worthy,but countless stories one after the other is not on.We are taught to worship these people now and obsess.Sad day man passess away,hey over it.it Sums up society today,willfully ignorant and brainwashed by tv and radio.
Musicians of this magnitutde are mourned simply because music means so very much to people; we grow with it, it grows with us, it relieves our stress, it gives us emotional release and it has very positive influences on our energy, body and brain. Prince was a musical genius, many people are upset, obviously not you Lee but thats okay. Maybe you’ve never heard music before
I think if you did a wee bit of research you would realise I was not an assassin.I had a poor shot ,I could not off pulled of the assassination due to this fact.But you believe the Warren commission,which in itself was flawed from the day it was set up.
RTE government and cronie buddies would not represent the independent freedom loving Prince. They might like his music but they certainly wouldn’t be down with his stances on position on certain things. Might I suggest that PrimeTime do a piece on Chemtrails a subject which Prince was vocal about ???
I agree Mr mango…but as you can see from all the red thumbs you are gettingn most people like to be spoon Fed from the likes of rte news.They hold comfort in their Irish independent,rte news and mor ing Ireland lol.Over educated but lack independent thought and the will to question authority.
Thats cool,Prime Time taking a leaf outta Newsnight’s book with a lighter credits and a nice music tribute. Too many rte shows are too stiff and serious
Prince, like most of us like minded, would spit on Rte and it’s lie through omission policies. Prime time is a gate keeper like the war on drugs. They proclaim to be tackling the problem when they really are helping guide the outrage which is the brainwashed masses goto first emotion in reaction to the corruption of their overlords. But even Prince’s soul can’t replace the ones Rte & it’s minions already sold to the devil.!
Surprised anyone in RTE has enough soul to appreciate Prince. Disturbing to realise I have something in common with the government droids in Donnybrook
They should have faded the music in rather than just blasting it straight out. It’s a nice sentiment all the same.
Pity RTE is shite for the vast majority of the time.
Last weekthe bodies of two more young males were fished out of Galway Bay and Leo the Loo Head has decided he can afford to tske €14m from mental health.There are plenty more tragedies closer to home Prime Time could theme song, maybe “Suicide is Painless”.but of course it’s not, neither is is victimless.
Prince was a fan of Dick Gregory. He had strong opinions about society and politics and would not have been a fan of state owned and government controlled propaganda tv.
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