“It’s better than nothing, I suppose,” said homeowner Ailish Scully, responding to reductions in carbon tax rates on home heating oil announced in Budget 2027.
The rate of carbon tax on kerosene and natural gas was due to increase to €78.50 per tonne by next May. But Minister for Finance Simon Harris told the Dáil the tax would reduce to €48.50 and remain at that level for the lifetime of this Government.
Ailish had delayed ordering heating oil this winter for her four-bedroom detached home in Moycullen, Co Galway until after the budget.
That delaying tactic paid off; Fine Gael estimated the new rate of carbon tax will save people about €86 on a 1,000-litre fill of heating oil this winter.
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“We’ll get a few bob off, and hopefully it won’t go up any more. They make out that they’re giving you loads of money back but at the end of the day you pay one way or another,” said the 62-year-old.
“We have to wait and see what happens with the [Iran] war as well because the price increases are to do with that. If things calm down there, prices might go down further.”
The Government has included more than €650 million for residential and community energy upgrade schemes in the budget.
Ailish said this would encourage her and her husband Declan to explore what grants are available to retrofit their 24-year-old home to improve its energy rating, including wall and attic insulation and solar panels.
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“We talked about it before but haven’t done anything about it,” she said.
“I’d strongly consider getting it done because it would be better for the environment and we’d be saving electricity or selling electricity back to the grid.”
‘It is probably a disappointment’ – the small business owner
Despite the flurry of budget announcements on tax cuts and spending increases, bike shop owner Ruairí Parsons felt, as a small business owner, there “really wasn’t much that got me excited”.
Parsons, general manager of Donnybrook Bikes in Dublin 4, had been keeping an eye on the budget coverage from the Dáil but there “wasn’t anything that jumped out at me that I could say would benefit the shop”.
“It is probably a disappointment,” he said.
But he added that there “were a couple of small things” that caught his eye.
The bike shop employs eight people, four full-time and four part-time.
[ Budget Calculator 2027: Here’s how this year’s budget will affect your incomeOpens in new window ]
“For anyone on minimum wage, they would be coming out with a few extra bob,” Parsons said, noting the 79 cent increase to €14.94 per hour.
There was also a “slight” reduction in the PRSI paid by an employer with the increase in the PRSI threshold rising from €552 to €600 per week.
This would save small businesses “between €650 and €700 per employee” over a year, he said.
Harris said the Government would review the Cycle to Work Scheme in 2027 “to determine ways to boost take up among all workers”, though Parsons was not convinced that “take up” was an issue”.
The scheme is a tax incentive programme that allows people to repay the cost of a bike directly from their annual salary through an agreement with their employer.
“Sometimes when we hear the words ‘bike to work scheme’, we’re almost dreading it if [the customer] comes in with a voucher,” he said.
He explains that often large organisations will issue vouchers to their employees for the scheme that come from third-party companies, which can charge commission to the shop on sales paid for with its vouchers.
“We get hit hard,” Parsons said.
“The customer loves the bike to work scheme because, for them, it’s pretty much a half-price bike.
“But bike shops aren’t the biggest fan of it ... sometimes it’s more hassle than it’s worth.”
‘A stop gap measure’ – the farmer
“A standstill budget at best,” said North Cork farmer Noel Hurley (58), summing up measures announced in the budget.
While Minister for Finance Simon Harris delivered some decent measures to assist farmers, they won’t put farming back to where it was a year ago, he says.
Hurley points out that in the 10 days since he last spoke to The Irish Times about the budget the price of green diesel has increased by 20 cent a litre.
“It was €1.50 a litre back then; today I’m paying €1.70 a litre so that’s what you’re up against – Energy prices that are threatening to spiral out of control and it affects everything,” he said.
Hurley, who is milking 200 cows on a 300-acre holding in Kildorrery with his son Sean (26), welcomes the extension of the Fuel Income Support Scheme which, if it follows the last scheme, will give farmers a rebate of 20 cents on every litre and should hold the price at €1.50 a litre – for now.
“That’s welcome because it is ring-fenced for farmers and contractors so it will bring the price of diesel back down to €1.50 a litre but that’s still an 80 per cent rise on this time last year when I was paying 90 cent a litre,” he said.
“It’s a stop gap measure because the cost of doing business is going through the roof.”
He noted that the carbon tax was being reduced on home heating oil and gas but there was “no mention of it being reduced on green diesel”.
“That’s disappointing because while I might like to use an electric tractor, that day is a long way off and I’m paying a carbon tax on something I can’t change,” he said.
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Hurley welcomed the continuation of the Fertiliser Rebate Scheme where the Government will again add 200 per cent to the €15 million given by the EU.
This should again lead to a rebate of €34 euro per tonne but with fertiliser averaging about €700 a tonne, it’s of modest help at most, says Hurley.
He had hoped that the Government would cut VAT on animal vaccines across the board and in full, but the Government has instead cut it from 23 per cent to 9 per cent on respiratory vaccines only.
“It’s something but it’s only a start,” he said.
“Overall, it’s a standstill budget at best and it would be a big stretch to say you’d be holding your own.”
