After the trumpeting of measures announced in Budget 2025 comes the inevitable question: what fell by the wayside? Which mooted measures were quietly shelved?
The strongest criticism of the Government on Wednesday came from Social Justice Ireland, who have accused the Coalition of introducing a budget that has “condemned Ireland’s more vulnerable households to prolonged hardship”. They said the Government declined to index minimum social welfare payments to ensure recipients do not fall behind other members of society who are receiving significant tax cuts. They had lobbied the Government to commit to benchmarking core social welfare rates to 27.5 per cent of average earnings.
Also in the realm of social welfare changes, the raft of demands made by backbenchers over the summer for pension increases of between €15 to €20 also clearly fell on deaf ears, as expected. Instead, the Government opted to increase welfare rates by €12. It was also suggested that jobseekers could miss out on increases, or face lower increases, but this did not happen.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke also proposed a €750 tax credit for people under the age of 25 in a bid to stop them emigrating after finishing college. Unsurprisingly, that was nowhere to be seen on budget day. He may still push for it to be central to Fine Gael election policy though.
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It also emerged over the summer that Ministers were considering cutting the VAT rate on internet connections as part of Budget 2025, which could have saved consumers more than €40 on their internet bills. The VAT rate is 23 per cent and such a change would have involved a cut to 13.5 per cent, which is the reduced rate that applies to some essential goods and services. Although the measure was being examined for broadband providers, it did not materialise this week.
And while Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien was successful in achieving an extension on the Help to Buy scheme, he did not succeed in a mooted proposal to increase the cap on the price of homes eligible for the scheme, currently €500,000. A source said the goal would have been to introduce regional variations to the cap, which has been in place since 2016, in recognition of price differences in different parts of the country.
Estate agent Savills had called for the threshold to be raised from €500,000 to €614,000 for homes in Dublin, citing increases in construction costs and consumer inflation since it was initiated. In the end, the Government settled for an extension to 2029 for the scheme, rather than an expansion.
