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BUDGET 2016 HAS been unveiled and the reaction is mixed.
The budget, which has been widely described as a ‘giveaway budget’, confirmed many of the predictions and kites that were flown in the coming days and weeks.
It brought tax cuts, free GP care to under 12′s and a boost to the minimum wage.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Minister for Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin unveiled a €3 boost the old age pension, while the Christmas bonus was restored by 75%.
So how did you fare in the final budget of this current Government before the general election?
Here’s the breakdown on the winners and losers.
WINNING: Workers
Michael Noonan says all workers will get an additional week’s wages due to the tax changes made in today’s budget.
From January 1, around 42,500 workers will be completely removed from paying the Universal Social Charge, USC, while the entry threshold will increases from €12,012 to €13,000.
USC Rates will be cut from 1.5% to 1%, from 3.5% to 3% and from 7% to 5.5%.
Minister Brendan Howlin also confirmed that the minimum wage will be increased to €9.15 an hour from January 1.
In terms of job creation, 2,260 new teachers will come on stream in 2016, including 600 new resource teachers while an extra 600 gardaí are to be recruited next year.
LOSING: Jobseekers under 25
There will also be no increase in the jobseeker’s allowance for under-25s, which was cut to €100 in Budget 2014.
WINNING: Pensioners
LOSING: Start ups
The Budget has been criticised for not supporting start ups. It has been described as ‘incredibly disappointing’ and as encouraging startups to leave Ireland.
WINNING: Social welfare recipients
The Christmas bonus, which was partially restored last year, has been increased by 50% for people on weekly long-term social welfare payments.
Today’s announcement means a jobseeker receiving €188 a week will get an extra €141 at Christmas.
LOSING: Smokers
The price of cigarettes is to rise by 50c, bringing the cost of a 20-pack to €10.50.
Retailers Against Smuggling say this move means that smugglers are ‘laughing all the way to the bank’.
WINNING: Parents
Child Benefit will go up by €5 a month to €140 next year and the Respite Care Grant has also been restored.
It was also announced that fathers will get a paid paternity leave of two weeks from September of next year.
In childcare, it was revealed that all children will avail of free preschool/childcare from age 3 to 5 and a half or when they start primary school.
While 8,000 childcare places were announced to support parents in low paid employment.
LOSING: People who wanted a tax of fizzy drinks
The sugar tax didn’t happen, despite the fact that the Health Minister Leo Varadkar had written to the Minister Noonan asking for a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened drinks in an effort to tackle obesity.
Irish Heart Foundation said “by failing to introduce a tax on sugar sweetened drinks the Government is prioritising the wealth of multinational companies over the nation’s health and particularly the health of children”.
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The Irish Proclamation basically says ”Ireland for the Irish”,,, the politicians of today would do well to remember that,,,
@Finian McG:Politicians off ALL the partys!
@Finian McG: you may interpret it that way if you want but a hundred years on that thinking just won’t wash…
@David Cotter: Well they died to get people OUT of Ireland,,,certianly NOT to bring a load of them in!!!
@Finian McG: yet hundreds of thousands of Irish went to England after that war because Ireland was a basket case…..what an embarrassment that was….
@Finian McG: They are long dead, what they thought is irrelevant! It’s now we live and folks would do well to remember that and try to get to grips with the now instead of trying to reflect the past!
@David Cotter: For them maybe, they are dead and gone, it’s therefore no longer an embarrassment as you mistakenly think but a practical necessity which generally considerably outweighs embarrassment tbf.
@Finian McG: Define ‘Irish’?
Some difference between the leaders of 1916,and the modern day politicians. Worlds apart
@Jb Walshe: Current leaders don’t have guns
@Sal Paradise: Or a clue what they’re at!
@Jb Walshe: Could you list the differences for the crowd? Doubt it ngl!
@Jb Walshe: The leaders of 16 knew they were involved in a fools errand.
Padraig Pearce and all the men and women who fought for our countries freedom would turn in their graves if the saw what’s happening today.
@John doe: that man along with de Valera made sure we were beaten with an iron fist, unfortunately we have FF still
And the state of the country now
@Fintan Pox: Class country. Pearse and co. world new so proud. We have made huge strides in the past 100yrs. But you have a moan to keep yourself happy.
@Sal Paradise: lol
@Fintan Pox: Easter Eggs and complaining on The Journal. You must have had a great day?
@Fintan Pox: compared to mass poverty, tenement houses, Magdalene laundries etc??
@Sal Paradise: dream on
Patriots of 1916 must be turning in their graves with the organisation that stole the SF name who act as cheerleaders for the depraved actions of Provo terrorists who engaged in murder, rape and abuse.
@Pat Hazzard: And the brits and loyalists were just victims and innocent too….I do love when people try to rewrite history, the RA were no angels, but given who they were fighting, both sides were as bad as each other, but the shinners living rent free in your head seems to forget that part
@Tom Newell: ‘who they were fighting’ they planted bombs, executed ‘off duty’ security forces, engaged in sectarian murder along the border farms, shot into churches, work vans, hotels. ‘Fighting’ catch yourself on. They were sectarian murdering thugs. Nothing more.
Absolute traitors the lot of them. The very, very worst.
“The 1916 proclamation was read out in full by Captain Paul Murphy, who learned it off by heart”. Well, why did he need to read it out, then?
@Max: maybe he was dyslexic…..
The patriots of 1916 would be very angry at the INEQUALITY shown by our politicans to the citizens of Ireland. After the next general election 11 people will be gifted a job as a Senator. Millions of Irish citizens DO NOT GET A VOTE with regards to choosing members of the Senate. And the politicans wonder why the people are angry. Enda Kenny picked a friend of his who was and still lives in AMERICA.
@rory Mcgovern: No they wouldn’t.
@rory Mcgovern: we had a vote to abolish the seanad , people voted against it
No sign of Jeffrey ?
Considering there are irish people of all 360 degrees of whatever all over the planet and yet a few frightened little right wing manboys, think this island is overcrowded because of a few migrants
@Robert Halvey: your a Manboy….
@Robert Halvey: not overcrowded if that’s the way you want to put it, just homelessness increasing regardless of were you’re from but sure let’s increase homelessness some more and sit wondering why.
The Seanad was supposed to have been reformed. It has NOT BEEN. AMAZING and SAD what the population accepts. Mickey d has spent too long in the Arus if he thinks that the values of 1916 proclamation still true today..He will be shocked next year when he has to start spending his own money.
@rory Mcgovern: I doubt it. The little faux-socialist, naval gazer will be on a fine fat pension. Can’t wait to see the back of him and his token wife.
Retire Mick ffs u agreed to 1 term..
Flags and borders will be the last remnants of a bygone age. Money, wealth, power, all badly handled be the simple human mind. Still we don’t fix the problems that affect us on a daily basis or consider the vastness of the universe and how to access it… lads are
like ‘this shiny is mine’… we wait
The men who fought for that would be rolling in their graves. We have had the country 108 years and are giving it away to non nationals and Muslims and Islam’s. Ridiculous and heart breaking
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