Budget 2024 to deliver free secondary schoolbooks for certain years

Coalition leaders met late into the evening on Monday to put the final touches to a budget expected to introduce up to €1,250 in tax breaks for mortgage holders and €450 in energy support grants for households.

While meetings were ongoing on the Social Welfare package, traditionally among the last elements to be finalised, sources said that across the board increases of €12 to weekly payments were “nailed on”.

Three energy credits of €150 will be paid spread across the winter, either side of Christmas, with a double payment of child benefit before Christmas and a double welfare payment afterwards.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien was expected to receive approval to increase the renters’ tax credit, but there was no final clarity on what level was agreed, with suggestions it would be €750.

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Talks on Monday evening were focused on a “modest” tax break for landlords based on an income disregard, with a proposal being examined that would see €3,000 of landlords’ income taxed at the standard 20 per cent rate in 2024, increasing to €4,000 in 2025 and €5,000 in 2026 and 2027. The measure was expected to cost up to €48 million in 2024.

Sources indicated that this will mean about €600 benefit to landlords in year one, €800 in year two and €1,000 in years three and four.

The health budget was agreed after weeks of wrangling, but there were indications that the allocation for new services would be limited.

Talks were closing in on a personal tax package that would see the personal PAYE and earned income tax credits increase by €100 to €1,875, while, as expected, the level at which taxpayers begin paying the top rate of tax will increase by €2,000 to €42,000.

More income would be protected from higher rates of USC under the proposals, with the ceiling for the 2 per cent rate increasing from €22,290 to €25,760. Meanwhile, the 4.5 per cent rate currently levied will be reduced to 4 per cent.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman secured funding for a further 25 per cent cut to childcare fees, but it was unclear exactly when it would be introduced, with sources saying on Monday night it was likely to be later than January 2024, and final details were still being worked on.

Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney agreed a €250 million package for businesses which will see a once-off reduction in rates for at least 130,000 businesses around the country. The exact method was still being worked on but small and medium firms are likely to receive a once-off grant worth up to 50 per cent of their rates, and will not have to demonstrate an increase in utility bills. A planned increase in employers’ PRSI scheduled for January will be delayed by either six or nine months.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan secured a 20 per cent cut to public transport fares for adults to be extended for another year, while the qualifying age for half-price fares on public transport was increased to include 24 and 25 year olds. When added to the 20 per cent fare cut for adults, it means a 60 per cent fare cut for all people aged 19-25.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee got agreement on a 25 per cent increase in Garda overtime to support visibility policing and a 66 per cent increase in the training allowance which rises to €305 per week from €184 per week, beginning on January 1st with a backdated lump payment. She secured €9 million to increase criminal legal aid fees by 10 per cent.

Families with an income of less than €100,000 will see college fees for undergraduate students halved from €3,000 to €1,500 this year. All other families will see college fees for full-time undergraduate students cut by €1,000.

The measure is understood to be part of a wider package of reforms and supports to reduce the cost of education, which Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris will announce later in the week.

Minister for Education Norma Foley is understood to have agreed €55 million to expand provision of free schoolbooks to the first three year groups in secondary schools – in total some 770,000 children are expected to get free books.

The vacant property tax is due to be increased from three to five times the rate of Local Property Tax.