Budget 2025: Two double child benefit payments set to feature in €2bn cost-of-living package
A bumper package nearing €2 billion aimed at helping households with the increased cost of living is being finalised by the Government as it prepares a giveaway budget in advance of a general election.
Taoiseach Simon Harris on Sunday signalled that the package of once-off measures, to be announced on Tuesday, would likely be hundreds of millions higher than the previously expected €1.5 billion.
Budget 2025 full coverage
- What a renter, a carer and a wheelchair user want from Budget 2025?
- Budget 2025: What we know so far
- For your pocket, it will be the tale of two budgets
- Budget 2025: How The Irish Times is covering it
News in Ireland
- Thousands left without power while rivers burst banks in stormy conditions: More than 4,000 properties were left without power on Sunday night after stormy conditions hit the south and east of Ireland.
- Snapshot poll: Dáil bike shed leaps onto political agenda as a big issue for voters: The controversy over the €336,000 Dáil bike shed has cut through to capture voters’ attention in the last month, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos Snapshot poll.
- Gardaí investigate bomb threat from prisoner against McEntee: Gardaí are investigating a bomb threat against the home of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
- Weather forecast: It will be mostly cloudy this morning with patchy rain and drizzle spreading from the northwest but it will become drier and brighter in the southwest with sunny spells. This afternoon, the cloud and rain will become largely confined to Ulster and north Leinster with a mix of sunshine and scattered showers elsewhere. Highest temperatures of 11 to 16 degrees. Tonight will be dry across the bulk of the country with clear spells. Minimum temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees.
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The Big Read
- What I’ve learned from 20 years writing Pricewatch: “Sausages are ideal comfort food, and they don’t come much more comforting than these. Hick Cajun Sausages are huge and bursting with spicy flavour. They’re great barbecued and stuffed into a roll, and they also make a wonderful sausage stew – Cajun coddle for the 21st century. Great texture and taste.” So began the first Pricewatch column which appeared in The Irish Times 20 years ago this month.
Opinion
Business
- Why Ireland has Scandinavian prices but without the salaries to justify them: A Norwegian pal of mine told me recently that he reckoned Ireland had caught up with Norway in terms of prices albeit with one exception: beer.
Sports
- Áine O’Gorman confident Ireland can continue momentum with Euro 2025 qualification: Former Republic of Ireland international Áine O’Gorman is optimistic about the team’s chances of making it to their first European Championship finals as the Girls in Green continue their qualifying campaign next month.
World
- Life in Beirut: ‘At the beginning there was some bombing but we didn’t leave’: He sits in the scorching sun, crutches and a plastic bag filled with medication by his side. “I am disabled, I don’t have money, I went only with my clothes,” says Rabii Ayoub. “We are so badly humiliated. This is the worst humiliation that could happen,” writes Sally Hayden.
- South African family feels ‘like we are on death row waiting for deportation’ from Ireland: For Neels Heystek and his family, who have been refused asylum and leave to remain in Ireland, waiting for a deportation order is “like being on death row”.
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