Income tax relief, an increased price ceiling for the Help-to-Buy scheme and inheritance tax reform are among the budget asks of Fianna Fáil backbenchers.
It comes as the party held its second special parliamentary party meeting of recent weeks to discuss priorities for upcoming spending.
Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators met Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers at the gathering chaired by the party’s finance spokesman Shay Brennan.
There is said to have been contributions from more than a dozen attendees and along with a “strong consensus” on the need for a personal taxation package, while members also agreed on the need to tackle key costs such as childcare.
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Dublin Rathdown TD Brennan said after the meeting that colleagues “raised asks across a wide range of areas, all of them valid” but a “clear theme” was “making life easier for working people”.
“Members want this budget to have a tax package which rewards those who have to work hard to make ends meet and to make sure they have some disposable income left at the end of the week.”
Earlier, Cork South Central TD Seamus McGrath told The Irish Times his “key asks” for the budget were a personal tax package, a stamp duty waiver for first-time home buyers, and an increase in the Living Alone Allowance.
He also wanted to see an increased price ceiling for the Help-to-Buy scheme. Currently, for a home to qualify for the scheme that ceiling is €500,000. McGrath said he would like it to be increased to €550,000.
Dún Laoghaire TD Cormac Devlin said he has suggested an increase in the Small Gift Exemption to €5,000.
He said the current threshold after which people must pay Capital Acquisitions Tax on a gift – €3,000 – has been in place for more than 20 years.
Devlin also said he wanted to see “a decent income tax package” and reform of inheritance tax bands including an increase in the €400,000 threshold for parents leaving inheritances to their children and other changes that would allow people with no children to leave more to beneficiaries tax-free.
Wicklow-Wexford TD Malcolm Byrne said of his budget asks: “We need to do more in terms of preventive healthcare and that includes building resistance training and supporting flexibility” and added that tax relief on gym membership was “a proven measure to assist this”.
Elsewhere, at Fine Gael’s parliamentary party meeting, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said the escalation of hostilities between the United States and Iran was “extraordinarily concerning”.
He told his party’s TDs and Senators he will discuss the latest developments and their economic impact with fellow European Union finance ministers on Thursday.
The Fine Gael leader said the greatest economic intervention that could happen would be “calmness, peace and de-escalation”.
However, he also argued that the volatility of the current situation in the Middle East shows that the Government was justified in its decision last week to prolong cuts to excise duty on fuel.
He said the decision extending current excise cuts until September 1st, and then tapering them over the following months made sense given the volatility of global oil prices in recent hours.
Harris also spoke of the upcoming budget saying he was working to put together “a meaningful income tax package” and wants to build on progress on reducing childcare costs.
Harris said the budget must do more to help people transition away from fossil fuels and adopt clean energies and this will be cheaper and better for everyone in the medium to long term.
