Budget 2022 consisted of over one and a half hour of speeches made by Minister for Finance Pascal Donohue and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath.
As debates continue to take place in the Dáil, we’ve gathered the main points to note from the 2022 Budget.
They Include:
- The back-to-school allowance is set to increase by €10.
- As part of the first changes to the carers means test in 14 years more carers will qualify for payments.
- Carers will also see a weekly payment increase of €5.
- €5 increase on weekly social welfare payments including the State pension. A full Christmas bonus will also be paid.
- The qualified child payment will increase by €2 to €40 for under-12s, and by €3 to €48 for over-12s.
- New Mica redress scheme to be announced in coming weeks.
- €5 rise in the weekly fuel allowance – a change that is likely to take immediate effect from tonight.
- Free GP care for children until their 8th birthday.
- €10 million package for free contraception, while separate spending on women’s health package set to rise to €20 million.
- There is over €200m set aside to help tackle Hospital waiting lists.
- Discount travel cards for 18 to 23-year-olds (inclusive) which will reduce public transport fares by 50 percent for card holders.
- The minimum wage is rising by 30c to €10.50 an hour.
- There will be no cliff edge to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme - it will remain in place in a graduated form until the 30th of April 2022.
- 800 extra Gardaí and 400 new Garda civilian staff, bringing the total level of Garda staff to 3,800, the highest ever.
- Price of most popular cigarettes now €15.
- Extra 980 teachers in special education, and an additional 1,165 Special Needs Assistants.
- The Susi student grant will be increased by €200 for those in higher /further education.
- €1.30 in rise of cost to fill a car with petrol and €1.50 in rise of cost to fill a car with diesel.
- A 20-cent increase in the cost of a bale of briquettes / A 90-cent increase in the cost of a bag of coal.
- Housing for All to deliver 33,000 new homes a year up to 2030.
- Three-year extension to pre-letting expenses relief for landlords.
- There will be €194 million euro put into homeless services.
- €65 million euro for housing adaptation grants.
- There will be a €3 increase to the living alone allowance.
- There will also be a €10 increase in the income threshold for the working family payment.
- 12.5% Corporation Tax won't change for 'most' companies.
- 90 million euro going to aviation.
- Access, Affordability and Quality are key pillars to the reform of the healthcare system.
- 105 million euro for disability services.
- 716 million euro investment in childcare in 2022.
