Budget 2026<\/a> have for you and your pocket?<\/p>\nTaxation rework<\/b><\/p>\n\n- The tax package has been pared back by \u20ac200 million to allow for more targeted spending in supports for the most vulnerable \u2013 meaning that \u20ac1.3 billion, not \u20ac1.5 billion, in taxation measures in this budget<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Personal tax and minimum wage<\/b><\/p>\n\n- No broad-strokes personal tax package<\/li>\n
- Minimum wage goes up by 65c to \u20ac14.15c per hour<\/li>\n
- In order to avoid penalising minimum wage earners, the Universal Social Charge (USC) 2 per cent rate band raises to \u20ac28,700<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Welfare<\/b><\/p>\n\n- There will be a \u20ac10 across-the-board increase to core weekly welfare payments including the old-age pension<\/li>\n
- A \u201cChristmas bonus\u201d double payment is likely<\/li>\n
- Child support payments will increase by \u20ac8 for kids under 12 and \u20ac16 for those aged 12 and over<\/li>\n
- Eligibility for fuel allowance will be extended to those receiving working family payments<\/li>\n
- Income thresholds for the working family payment will go up by \u20ac60<\/li>\n
- The income disregard for the carers\u2019 allowance is also expected to increase by \u20ac375 for a single person up to \u20ac1,000 and \u20ac750 for a couple, up to \u20ac2,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Childcare, children and disabilities<\/b><\/p>\n\n- A significant increase in spending on disabilities is on the cards \u2013 at least \u20ac500 million, but potentially more than \u20ac600 million<\/li>\n
- There will be money for \u201cthousands\u201d more childcare places and wage increases for those working in the sector<\/li>\n
- The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will be extended to two and three year olds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Education<\/b><\/p>\n\n- A new DEIS+ scheme for schools with the highest levels of education disadvantage<\/li>\n
- 860 new special education teachers<\/li>\n
- 1,700 new SNAs<\/li>\n
- New Education Therapy Service to roll our therapy supports directly into special schools<\/li>\n
- Increase in school funding across primary and post-primary schools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Third level<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Fees for students will come down by \u20ac500 on a permanent basis, to \u20ac2,500. This will be experienced by many as an increase in real terms, as they have been temporarily lowered to \u20ac2,000 in recent years<\/li>\n
- Income thresholds for SUSI grants will rise by \u20ac5,000 to \u20ac120,000 per household<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Housing, mortgage holders and renters<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Help to Buy to be extended<\/li>\n
- Renters tax credit extended for three years at its current level of \u20ac1,000 for an individual or \u20ac2,000 for a couple<\/li>\n
- VAT on the sale of new apartments to be reduced from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent<\/li>\n
- Exemptions or reductions in corporation tax on profits from the sale of some apartments, including Cost Rental schemes<\/li>\n
- Mortgage interest tax relief extended for two years, but reduced for the final year. People will be able to claim the existing level of \u20ac1,250 for 2025, and \u20ac625 for 2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Energy, climate and utility bills<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Lower VAT of 9 per cent on utility bills will be extended for three years to the end of 2028<\/li>\n
- \u20ac588 million for SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes \u2013 an \u20ac89 million increase on last year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Transport<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Reduced public transport fares will be maintained for next year<\/li>\n
- \u20ac5,000 VRT relief for EVs extended to end 2026<\/li>\n
- BIK regime for company cars extended on a tapered basis \u2013 worth \u20ac10,000 next year, \u20ac5,000 in 2027, and \u20ac2,500 in 2028. It will be abolished in 2029<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Enterprise<\/b><\/p>\n\n- VAT on food businesses, catering and hairdressing will reduce from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent from July 2026<\/li>\n
- This will cost \u20ac232 million next year and \u20ac681 million in a full year<\/li>\n
- Research and Development tax credits will be overhauled<\/li>\n
- The R&D credit rate will rise from 30 per cent to 35 per cent<\/li>\n
- The first year payment threshold rises to \u20ac87,500 to support smaller projects<\/li>\n
- CGT revisions: entreprenurial relief reformed with the lifetime limit raised from \u20ac1 million to \u20ac1.5 million<\/li>\n
- The Special Assignee Relief Programme has been extended for five years and increased minimum qualifying income raised to \u20ac125,000 per year<\/li>\n
- Banking levy extended by another year with a target yield of \u20ac200 million<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Health<\/b><\/p>\n\n- The final allocation for health will be \u20ac27.3 billion, an increase of \u20ac1.5 billion on 2025<\/li>\n
- 300 more staff for mental health services<\/li>\n
- 100 more clinicians for mental health crisis, including specialist teams to be placed in model 4 emergency departments out of hours<\/li>\n
- New crisis resolution teams, including drop-in crisis cafes to be established next year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Justice<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Up to 1,000 additional garda\u00ed in 2026<\/li>\n
- More money for body cameras, victim support, youth diversion and domestic violence programmes<\/li>\n
- More spending on resources to speed up immigration processing <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The Arts, Sports and Education<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Basic Income for Artists scheme to be retained on a permanent basis, rather than as a pilot scheme<\/li>\n
- The Section 481 film tax credit will see a new 40 per cent rate of relief for productions with \u20ac1 million of spending on relevant visual effects work, up to a maximum of \u20ac10 million per production<\/li>\n
- The Digital Games tax credit will be extended for six years until the end of 2031<\/li>\n
- \u20ac10 million more for sports, including \u20ac3 million for the FAI\u2019s academy system<\/li>\n
- \u20ac15 million for An Post<\/li>\n
- \u20ac33 million for the National Broadband Plan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Agriculture<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Increased budget including more funding for the new TB action plan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Old reliables<\/b><\/p>\n\n- Excise duty goes up by 50 cent on a box of cigarettes with pro rata increase on other tobacco products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has taken the wraps off its first budget since being installed at the start of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,10471,66890,39729,17889,66891,18,15912,13,14,51907,6,8752,19,17,26736,11,12,15,16,5,46,57326,66892,4520,12548,7,8,14084,24727],"class_list":{"0":"post-106777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-carer-s-allowance","12":"tag-child-benefit","13":"tag-childcare","14":"tag-disability-allowance","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-energy-crisis","17":"tag-featured-news","18":"tag-featurednews","19":"tag-fuel-allowance","20":"tag-headlines","21":"tag-housing-crisis","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-jack-chambers","25":"tag-latest-news","26":"tag-latestnews","27":"tag-main-news","28":"tag-mainnews","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-paschal-donohoe","31":"tag-rent-tax-credit","32":"tag-social-welfare-payments","33":"tag-tax","34":"tag-third-level","35":"tag-top-stories","36":"tag-topstories","37":"tag-usc","38":"tag-vat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}