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Budget 2022: Live Blog

Oct 12, 2021 13:28 By News Northern Sound
Budget 2022: Live Blog
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Scroll through for the latest from the Budget 2022 speeches.

You can find a summary of today's announcement here.

2.30pm

And so concludes the speech by Minister Michael McGrath. The Ceann Comhairle introduces Sinn Fein TDs Pearse Doherty and Mairead Farrell to allow them to share their reaction.

Doherty starts by describing the budget as being "out of touch", "out of ideas" and "out of time".

He says renting issues, healthcare and childcare wasn't dealt with appropriately.

Sinn Fein's Finance Spokesperson is outlining what his party would have done had they been the government party.

2.26pm

€50m is being put towards the Shared Island Fund projects.

€6.7m for a youth justice strategy to tackle anti-social behaviour.

800 new gardai and 400 garda civilian staff will be recruited in 2022.

A package on domestic and sexual violence is being created, which includes an extension of legal aid for victims and funding awareness campaigns.

€5m for new small capital grant scheme for community centre upgrades.

In the tourism sector, €50m is being introduced for business continuity supports.
€39m for enhanced marketing and product development. €25m for the continuation of live entertainment supports.

2.18pm - Social Welfare

€558m package

5 euro a week for working age welfare payments including 5 euro for young jobseekers. Increase in Qualified Children rate for U12s by €2 and over 12s by 3 euro.

There will be a €5 a week increase in state pension and a 3 euro a week increase to living alone allowance.

Fuel allowance is increasing by 5 euro a week

Parents benefit is to increase by 2 weeks to 7 weeks from July next year.

€10 on the back to school allowance

€10 on the working family payment

Domiciliary Care Allowance goes up from 3 to 6 months.

Rate of wage subsidy scheme for disabilities will rise by €1 a week.

There will be an increase in income disregard for carers allowance, and earnings limits on disability allowance is to go from €350 to €375

2.15pm - Education

€9.2bn for Education.

980 additional teachers and 1,165 new SNAs will be recruited.

€30m for school transport.

350 additional teacher posts will be created to reduce class sizes by 1. €18m to increase number of DEIS schools, and €4m to increase allocation of hot school meals.

3,320 additional CAO places as part of a 68m investment in higher education.

€35m to help with the cost of going to college.

The SUSI grant will be increased by 200 euro and changes to who can get it.

A 200 euro fee for post leaving cert courses will be scrapped.

2.10pm

€3.4 billion for transport.

€25 million has been announced for a new youth travel card, where anyone aged 19-23 will get 50% discount on public transport.

€360m for active travel and greenways.

2.07pm

€ 716m investment in childcare in 2022

New funding stream for 4,700 childcare providers from Sep 2022 onwards, at a cost of €69m to improve conditions for workers

Extend NCS to children under age of 15 from Sep 2022 at cost of €5m.

€28 million is being set aside for ending direct provision in line with the government's white paper.

There'll be €700m for capital spending by the Department of Climate, with €202m for home retrofitting - supporting 22,000 energy upgrades.

2.03pm - Health

A women's Health package of €31 million will include free contraception for women aged 17-25 from next August, progress on period poverty as well as more funding for sexual assault treatment units.

€105m for disability services.
€37m for expansion of mental health services.
€30m for national strategies including Cancer Strategy.

1.59pm - Health

Core health spending is to increase by €1 billion to a record €20.38bn. Including capital and Covid provision it totals €22.2 billion.

8,000 new posts will be created across the health system.

€1 billion for the health service in 2022 for Covid health measures. €200m of that will be held in a central contingency fund.

Includes 500m for testing and tracing, vaccine booster campaign and PPE

€10.5m for 19 extra ICU beds in 2022 bringing total to 340 - a 33% rise since start of pandemic.

A €250 million fund is being announced to tackle waiting lists.

Free GP care is being extended to children aged 6 and 7. The drug payment scheme threshold is lowered to €100.
There will be improvement to dental access and measures to reduce cost of hospital charges for children.

1.56pm

€20 billon will be made available over the next five years for housing.

€6bn next year, 15.6% up on 2021.

€174m for direct delivery of 4,000 affordable homes next year.

€1.6bn being invested in water services next year.

A new Micra redress scheme is to be announced in coming weeks.

1.52pm

Minister McGrath introduces immediate recovery funding of 286 million euro.

This includes €90m aviation package, €30m for protection and renewal of roads, €50m ICT grants for schools, €60m for extension of commercial rates waiver for Q4 targeted at hospitality, arts and tourism as well as €30m for health for areas hit hard by pandemic - palliative, mental and disability

1.45pm

Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe concludes his budget speech, and hands over to the Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath - who starts by thanking the Irish public for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He says we have more hope now that March 2020, thanks to the vaccine roll-out.

Proposals of a thank-you to the frontline workers, in the way of a pandemic bonus, are being worked on.

1.40pm

Excise on a 20 pack of cigarettes going up 50c, with a pro rata increase on other tobacco products.

The price of the most popular cigarettes will now €15.

1.37pm

An extension of Corporate Tax relief to certain start ups will remain until the end of 2026.

Employment Investment Incentive scheme is to be extended for three years and will be opened up to more investment funds.

There will also be relaxation of the rules around the capital investment window for investors

Various farming stock relief to continue. General stock relief will continue until the end of 2024, with a relief for young trained farmers to continue.

1.31pm

€7.50 increase in the carbon tax which will be reinvested in social welfare measures on fuel poverty and a just transition.

Modest tax disregard for personal income to households who sell surplus electricity from microgeneration back to the grid.

A revised motor tax system is being introduced, with a

- 1% increase in VRT for bands 9-12
- 2% increase for bands 13-15
- 4% increase for bands 16-20

The extension of €5,000 relief for Battery Electric Vehicles to end of 2023.

1.26pm - Housing

Three year extension to pre-letting expenses relief for landlords.

The Help to Buy scheme will be retained for 2022 at current rates and reviewed next year.

A Zoned Land Tax will be introduced and apply to land which is zoned for housing and serviced but is not being developed.

There will be a 2 year lead in time for land zoned before Jan 2022 and three years for land zoned after Jan 2022.

The rate will be 3% of market rate.

It will operate on a self assessment basis and have exemptions and will replace the vacant sites levy.

1.19pm - Tax

The ceiling for the second band of USC is rising to €21,295

The USC exemption for medical card holders and those over 70 earning less than 60k stays in place.

The minimum wage is rising by 30c to €10.50c an hour.

€520m tax package

The rate at which people pay the higher rate of tax increased by €1,500.

Personal tax credit, employee tax credit and earned income credit increasing by €50

Employees who work from home will be able to claim back 30 per cent of vouched expenses for heat, electricity and broadband.

A reduced VAT rate of 9% for the hospitality sector will remain in place until August 2022.

1.15pm

EWSS scheme is extended in graduated rate until 30th April 2022

- No change in October and November
- businesses still availing on 31st Dec 2021 will get it until 30th April
- In Dec, Jan and Feb a two rate structure of 151.50 and 203 will apply
- March and April 2022 a flat rate of 100 euro will be inplace. Reduced employers PRSI will no longer apply
- Scheme closes to new entrants from 1st Jan 2022

1.10pm
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Total budget package being announced today is 4.7 billion euro. 4.2 billion will be on expenditure and 0.5 billon in tax measures.
There are revenue raising measures of €230 millon in the budget.
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The budget deficit from Covid-19 is forecast to be 21.5 billion, down from 34.5 billion.

The national debt is to come in at just under 240 billon next year, with public spending in 2022 to be 87.6 billion euro

1.00pm

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And you are very welcome to our live budget updates on Northernsound.ie.

We will keep you updated on all the key announcements from the Dail as Pascal Donohoe and Michael McGrath take us through the major announcements of Budget 2022.

You can follow our updates on-air, on Twitter and on Instagram as well.

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11.30am - What we know so far.

Half price public transport for young people, free contraception and a hike in the fuel allowance are among some of the measures to be announced in today's budget.

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The €1.5 billion in additional spending will be largely aimed at addressing the rising cost of living.

Among the last measures agreed yesterday was a 5 euro a week rise in the fuel allowance, effective from midnight tonight.

That's in a bid to offset fuel costs - which will also rise at midnight due to a 7.50 a tonne increase in carbon tax.

The point at which people pay the higher rate of income tax will rise by €1,500 - worth about €8 a week.

Minister Eamon Ryan has secured a €25 million fund to give half price public transport to students and anyone aged between 19 and 23.

Pensions and most social welfare rates will rise by €5 a week - with a full Christmas bonus to be paid.

A 100m euro package from Minister Catherine Martin for the tourism sector will include a pilot universal basic income scheme for artists.

A loan guarantee scheme for financial institutions who lend to fund home retrofits forms part of a €350 million climate package.

The Department of Justice has secured funding for 800 new gardai and 400 garda civilian staff in 2022.

The Help to Buy Scheme is being extended by a year, while the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme is being extended until the first Quarter of 2022.

The Department of Health budget is set to see a decrease in Covid funding, while new spending will see a scheme to provide free contraception to young women.

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