Budget 2025: Increase In Social Welfare And One-Off Payment Announcements

The State has also announced changes to the income tax.

The Finance Minister is announcing €1 billion will go to Irish Water for non domestic capital investment. 

The land development agency is set to receive an addition €1.25 billion funding.

The budget will be €8.3b of new money, a 6.9% growth on last year.

€750m will be spent on the development of the electricity grid infrastructure. 

ENEGRY

€250 electricity credit in two parts - one before the end of the year and one after.

SOCIAL WELFARE

€300 to those on fuel allowance in November.

€200 extra on the living alone allowance.

€400 to those on carers support grant, disability allowance, blind pension, invalidity pension and domiciliary care allowance.

€12 increase in weekly social welfare payments.

An October and a Christmas social welfare double payment will be made.

Two double payments of child benefit will happen in November and December

€400 lump sum on the working family payment this year.

TAX

Main tax credits will increase by €125 on personal, employee and earned income.

Higher rate of tax rises €2k to €44k.

USC will see the 4% rate reduced to 3%.

Entry rate to 3% rate of USC will rise to €27k.

Finance Minister Jack Chambers outline why the changes are being made:

Increase in the Carer Tax Credit by €150.

Single person child carer by €150, incapacitated child credit by €300, dependent relative credit by €60.

Blind tax credit to increase by €300.

WAGES

Minimum wage to rise by 80c to €13.50 an hour from Jan 1st.

A full time worker on the minimum wage will see their net income rise by €1,424 annually.

LEAVE

Maternity, paternity, adoptive and parents leave rise by €15.

TOBACCO

Pack of 20 cigarettes going up by €1.

Pro-rata increase on other tobacco products.

Brings most popular pack price to €18.05 from midnight.

A tax on e-cigarettes will be introduced at a rate of 50c per ml of e-liquid

Typical vape has 2ml so average price will go from €8 to €9.23 euro from the middle of next year.

A lobby group representing smokers has slammed the announcement of a 1 euro increase on the excise duty on a packet of 20 cigarettes, and a pro-rata increase on other tobacco products.

FOREST, the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco, described the increase as 'brutal and counter-productive.'

The increase will push the cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes above 18 euro for the first time.

EDUCATION

€1,000 reduction on student contribution fee.

One off 33% in the contribution fee for higher education.

Increase in the Post Grad Tuition fee by €1,000 for student grant recipients.

School transport fee reduction and state exam fee waiver continue.

Free schoolbooks extended to all secondary schools.

Money to keep schools smartphone free and allow them to buy tech to do that.

1,600 new SNAs and 768 special education teachers to be recruited.

ALLOWANCE

Increase to carers allowance disregard to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple.

Increasing domiciliary care allowance by €20.

Increasing carers support grant by €150.

Enabling carers allowance to be an enabling payment for fuel allowance.

CHILDCARE

National Childcare Scheme budget to increase 44% leading to full time childcare costs reducing by an average of €1,100 a year.

The number of children availing of the scheme will increase to 216,000.

BABY

A baby bonus of €420 to be paid for each newborn child.

DISABILITY

€336m increase in money for disability services for extra residential care beds, respite, home support hours.

HEALTH

495 new beds to the health service.

600,000 home support hours extra.

Increased free IVF and new free HRT.

VOUCHERS

The exemption to allow employers to give employees vouchers or other non-cash rewards is increasing from €1,000 to €1,500 a year.

HOUSING

The Help to Buy scheme is being extended until the end of the decade.

Vacant homes tax to rise from 5 to 7 times the local property tax rate from November.

€3.2 billion in capital funding for the housing sector.

10,000 new build social homes at a cost of €2bn in 2025.

€680m for key affordable housing schemes.

10,000 new households under the HAP and RAS schemes in 2025.

€90m euro to retrofit 2,500 social homes in 2025.

APPLE

Government has agreed the Apple money should be used across water, electricity, transport and housing as four key pillars.

Investment framework being developed.

LANDLORDS

Pre letting expenses relief for landlords being extended to the end of 2027.

INHERITANCE

Inheritance tax increasing from €335 to €400k from a parent.

€32,500 to €40k for Group B.

€16,250 to €20k for Group C.

VAT

The 9% rate of VAT on gas and electricity is being extended six months to 30th April 2025.

The VAT rate on heat pumps is to be reduced from 23 to 9%.

CERVICAL

Payments to women under the Cervical Check payment scheme will be exempt from tax.

BUSINESS

Introduction of a partial exemption for foreign dividends for companies.

Increase in the first year of the R&D tax credit from €50k to €75k.

Doubling the Employment Investment Incentive from €500k to €1m.

Increasing reliefs on start ups for entrepreneurs.

Increase the lifetime limit on gains for angel investors in innovative start ups from €3m to €10m.

Tax credit on unscripted production at a rate of 20% on expenses of up to €15m for the audiovisual sector.

€20m for film productions under the 481 tax credit.

A new Energy Subsidy Scheme for businesses worth €170m euro for €39k firms has been agreed.

The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland says its gravely disappointed and frustrated with the Government’s Budget announcement, because it offers no reduction in VAT or excise duty for the pub sector. 

It warns today's measures fall disastrously short of what is needed to protect a sector on the brink.

The VFI is sounding the alarm that these insufficient measures will push many pubs to the breaking point.

FARMING

Extension to 2027 of the general stock relief, stock relief for young trained farmers, stock relief for registered farm partnerships.

Flat rate scheme for farmers being raised from 4.8% to 5.1%.

There will be an option for farmers and others who might be impacted by the residential zoned land tax to apply for a 2025 exemption if they want the land re-zoned to reflect work carried out.

€2b for Agriculture.

€30m for a new tillage scheme to support field crops.

€10m for animal health measures.

€22m for the national sheep welfare scheme.

€8m to enhance payment rates on the beef welfare scheme.

STAMP DUTY

Stamp duty on bulk purchases of homes by investment funds rises from 10 to 15%.

Increased stamp duty on high value residences.

From tonight there will be a 6% rate of stamp duty on properties worth more than €1.5m 

Rates 1% up to €1m, 2% of up to €1.5m, 6% over €1.5m.

BANK LEVY

The bank levy will be extended for another year with estimated yield of €200m.

CARBON TAX

Carbon tax will increase on 9th October from €56 to €63.50 for petrol and diesel.

Fuels For Ireland has slammed the increase in fuel taxes, saying they're placing a heavy burden on Irish households and businesses, and worsening the cost-of-living crisis.

The group warned that Ireland now has the highest level of fuel taxation in the EU.

 They're calling on Minister for Finance Jack Chambers to convene an expert group to review the current fuel tax system.

JUSTICE

350 extra staff for the Prisons Services.

1,000 gardai and 50 civilian gardai.

400 additional staff for the International protection processing system.

€7m for organisations tackling gender and domestic violence.

DEFENCE

22% increase in the capital money for defence to invest in military radar and subsea surveillance projects.

400 extra defence force members in 2025.

UKRAINE

€2.1BN for accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.

€25m for the community recognition fund for those integrating Ukrainian arrivals.

MOTOR

The motor insurers insolvency levy will be reduced from 1% to 0% from 1st Jan.

CIDER

The excise relief on small cider and perry producers extended.

NDP

Additional €1.7bn euro in 2025 for infrastructure projects including €400m to the National Broadband Plan.

TOWNS

€186m new funding to regenerate towns and urban areas.

CLIMATE

€3bn euro for the climate transition funds.

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, water quality or biodiversity will be looked at.

TRAINING

A €1.5bn package out to 2030 for funding research and higher education skills decarbonisation.

This includes €150m increase in core higher ed funding.

ARTS

€380m to arts and culture.

€107m to the gaeltacht.

€226 to tourism.

MEDIA

€328m to media funding - including €6m for the independent broadcasting sector.