Here is what we know about Budget 2025 so far.
Expected in 2024
- Two double child benefit payments before Christmas: €280 per child
- Universal electricity credits: €250
- Extra credits for renters
- Student fees to be reduced by €1,000-€1,500 in this academic year
- Wider eligibility for student grants
- Reduced VAT on electricity and gas extended until April
- Extra living-alone allowance
- Lump sums for people with long-term disabilities
Expected in 2025
- Universal Social Charge cut
- Higher income tax threshold to rise by €2,000, and tax credits to increase
- Free public transport for children under nine from summer 2025. New new universal companion pass for people aged over 70 to bring a friend on public transport.
- Parents of newborn children to receive a once-off, triple child benefit payment
- Mortgage interest relief extended
- 80c minimum wage rise
- Free schoolbooks up to Leaving Cert
- 1,500 additional special needs assistants
- 350 more special classes
- Junior Cert and Leaving Cert fees waived
- All welfare payments, including pensions, to increase by €12 per week
- Inheritance tax thresholds to rise
- Free hormone replacement therapy
- Expansion of IVF scheme to include donor assisted IVF and to to include couples experiencing secondary infertility
- Pay Related Benefit, which ensures those with stronger working histories receive higher welfare payments if they lose their jobs
- Pension enrolment scheme
Long-term changes
- Extension of the Help to Buy scheme to 2029
- 1,100 extra prison spaces over five years
- Land Development Agency, Irish Water and EirGrid to benefit from €17bn Apple tax and AIB share proceeds
