Budget 2016 – The key points live

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has concluded his Budget 2016 address to the Dail. You can also scroll down for the key points from the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

OVERSEAS AID
Budget of 640 million euro in 2016 for official development assistance such as fighting global hunger and poverty
EMERGENCY AEROMEDICAL SERVICE
The Emergency Aeromedical Service to be put on a permanent footing
GARDAI
Extra 600 Gardai to be recruited in 2016
2016
Extra 50 million euro for an extensive range of events and initiatives to commemorate 2016
HOUSING
Extra 69 million to allow local authorities secure accomodation for extra 14,000 households
GP CARE
GP care to be extended to under 12’s next year (subject to negotiation with doctor representatives)
HEALTH
Health budget of 13.2 billion next year “restores resourcing to health to pre-crisis levels”
CHRISTMAS BONUS
The welfare christmas bonus cut by previous government, restored to 25 per cent last year will be 75 per cent this year
FAMILY INCOME SUPPLEMENT
Threshold for supplement increases by 5 euro per week for families with one child, 10 euro per week for those with 2 or more children
FUEL ALLOWANCE
Fuel allowance to increase by 2.50 a week to 22.50
RESPITE CARE GRANT
Respite Care Grant value restored in full to 1,700 euro
OLD AGE PENSIONS
All pension payments to go up 3 euro a week from January 1, first increase since 2009
PUPIL TEACHER RATIO
Pupil teacher ratio will go from 28:1 to 27:1 at primary and from 19:1 to 18.7:1 at second level
TEACHERS
2,260 new teachers in 2016, including 600 new resource teachers
PATERNITY LEAVE
Paid paternity leave of two weeks for fathers from September next year
AFTERSCHOOL
3 million being provided to develop afterschool in school buildings
CHILD BENEFIT
Child Benefit to go up by 5 euro to 140 euro next year
CHILDCARE
8,000 childcare places to support parents in low paid employment
FREE PRESCHOOL
All children to avail of free preschool/childcare from age 3 to 5 and a half or when they start primary school
MINIMUM WAGE
Minister Howlin confirms National Minimum Wage will be increased to 9.15 an hour from January 1st.
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A series of cuts to the Universal Social Charge and a tax credit for self employed are some of the main measures announced so far in Budget 2016.
Michael Noonan this afternoon delivered this Government’s last budget before the general election.
He’s promised the threshold at which people pay USC will rise to 13,000 euro, that means an additional 1,000 euro per year for most middle income earners and will remove 42,500 people from paying USC completly.
Mr Noonan has also announced PRSI changes for the lower paid meaning more net cash for those on the minimum wage – he’s also promised an increase to the home carer tax credit of 190 euro bringing it to one thousand euro.
The Finance Minister has signaled an extensive childcare package will be announced later by Minister Brendan Howlin – this is expected to include two weeks paid paternal leave, a second free pre-school year, and a 5 euro increase in the children’s allowance
The local property tax will be frozen until at least 2019 and a new capital gains tax rate of 20 percent is being introduced who dispose of all or part of a business up to limit of 1 million euro
The key announcements in the Budget are listed below:
HOUSING
NAMA to deliver 20,000 residential homes by 2020 – 90 per cent of these in Dublin at cost of 4.5 billion
KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT BOX
Plans to introduce first OECD compliant KDB in the world and income that qualifies will be subject to reduced corporation tax rate of 6.25 per cent
FILM RELIEF
Increasing the film tax credit cap on eligible expenditure to 70 million
HAULIERS
Commercial motor tax rates to be cut with 20 rates being replaced by 5 ranging from 92 to 900 euro (current max is 5,195 euro)
DEBIT/ATM CARDS
5 per cent stamp duty on debit and atm cards to go and be replaced with a 12 cent per ATM transaction fee (to encourage more payments by card)
CARD FEES
Cuts in charges to businesses who accept debit card payments, saving these businesses 36 million a year, warns must be passed onto consumers in lower prices
AGRI FOOD
Extension of the general stock relief, stock relief for young farmers and stamp duty exemption for young trained farmers to be extended to end 2018 (further 3 years)
VAT
9 per cent VAT rate remains on hospitality sector, but warns case for hotel sector is Dublin is diminishing
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
New capital gains tax rate of 20 percent for people who dispose of all or part of a business up to limit of 1 million
BANK LEVY
Bank levy to be extended to 2021 to bring an extra 750 million to exchequer
PENSION FUND LEVY
Remaining 0.15 per cent pension fund levy will end this year and will not be applied in 2016
LOCAL PROPERTY TAX
Postponing the local property tax revaluation date from 2016 to 2019
CAPITAL ACQUISITION TAX
Increasing threshold for Group A (transfers between parents and children) from 225,000 to 280,000
EMPLOYER PRSI
Increasing entry point to the top rate of 10.75 by 20 euro per week to 376 euro a week
MINIMUM WAGE
Tapered PRSI tax credit for low paid workers to counter any change to tax on earning more
HOME CARER TAX CREDIT
Increase to the home carer tax credit of 190 euro bringing it to 1,000
USC 4
USC changes bring marginal tax rate to 49.5 per cent for all earners under 70,044 euro
USC 3
USC Rates to be cut from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent, from 3.5 per cent to 3 per cent, from 7 per cent to 5.5 per cent
USC 2
Around 42,500 workers will be removed from paying USC completely
USC 1
From January 1, USC entry threshold increases from 12,012 euro to 13,000
CIGARETTES
Pack of 20 cigarettes to increase by 50 cent from midnight tonight
DEFICIT
Budget 2016 will reduce the headline deficit to 1.2 per cent of GDP and reduce debt to under 93 per cent of GDP – the eurozone average.
RECOVERY
NOONAN: Top priority of budget is to keep recovery going, the recovery is not complete
GROWTH
Forecasting growth in 2015 of 6.2 percent and growth in 2016 of 4.3 percent
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Predicting unemployment will fall to 8 per cent by the end of 2016 and to 6.25 per cent by 2021