National reaction to Budget 2025 has been mixed but many issues raised across the board have significantly overlapped in terms of housing and taxation.
Business
Businesses nationwide have been reacting to Budget 2025 with many calling for reviews of decisions made and urgent action be taken as many believe this budget’s outcome puts their industries in volatile positions.
Ibec, the group representing Irish businesses, has welcomed the “ambitious scale of investment” outlined in Budget 2025, particularly in terms of infrastructure and human capital.
The confirmation to unlock the National Training Fund (NTF) has been hailed as an important and overdue step towards developing the necessary skills for a modern economy.
According to Ibec, Budget 2025 ‘reflects the role business has played in creating the surplus underlying today’s budget.’
Speaking about Budget 2025, Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said:
“Budget 2025 reflects the incredible contribution businesses have made in creating the surplus that is enabling the Government to be ambitious in the type of investment made today. In the past five years, corporation tax has contributed €110 billion to the Irish exchequer, with an expected €40 billion this year alone.
“We welcome the urgency to unlock the NTF and we will now work with the Government to ensure it’s effectively used to boost businesses and their employees.”
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) expressed disappointment with the outcome of Budget 2025 saying the decision to not reduce the hospitality VAT rate is “short-sighted and extremely concerning given the stark commercial environment that food service businesses are operating under.”
IHF President Michael Magner said:
“The measures reported would do next to nothing to address the enormous challenges confronting our sector while at the same time imposing further costs on thousands of hospitality businesses.
“These half-baked measures fall far short of what is needed to address the enormous challenges facing hospitality businesses.
“They demonstrate how out of touch policymakers in Government are with the commercial reality facing hospitality businesses.”
Mr. Magner emphasised that the government’s inaction poses an enormous risk to the wider hospitality and tourism industry.
As it stands the hospitality and tourism sectors make up a significant portion of Ireland’s largest indigenous employers, supporting over 280,000 livelihoods some 70% of which are outside of Dublin.
The IHF are calling for an urgent re-assessment of the Government’s policy approach to Irish hospitality and tourism in order to “stave off a growing commercial crisis within the sector before it is too late.”
READ MORE: Energy credits and Social Welfare ‘lump sums’ – what we know ahead of Budget 2025
CEO of Fuels for Ireland Kevin McPartlan has called for the government to review significant fuel tax hikes as petrol taxes rise by 21.6% and diesel taxes are set to increase by 27.4%, resulting in an additional €12 per full tank for the average driver.
As of today, Ireland has the highest level of fuel taxation in the EU, with 60.3% of the price of diesel and 57.3% of petrol going directly to the Government.
The increase to fuel taxes have made Ireland one of the most expensive countries in Europe for diesel and petrol, which Mr. MacPartlan says disproportionately impacts those who rely on vehicles for everyday life.
Film and Television
Meanwhile, Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) welcomed the announcements made by Minister for Finance Jack Chambers regarding Budget 2025.
SPI who represent independent production companies across Ireland expressed their satisfaction that some of their pre-budget requests reflected in Budget 2025.
Among these requests were the introduction of a fiscal incentive for the “unscripted” sector, encompassing TV programmes like Room to Improve, Name that Tune, Dancing with the Stars, and Gogglebox.
Susan Kirby, CEO of Screen Producers Ireland, commented on the unscripted incentive, stating:
“The Minister for Finance’s announcement today of a new unscripted fiscal incentive, subject to state aid rules, has the potential to be a game-changer for the Irish unscripted sector.
“We are grateful to Minister Chambers and previous Ministers McGrath and Donohue for their commitment to pursuing this policy idea and turning it into a reality. This incentive, once implemented, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on both domestic and incoming productions.”
Health
The Menopause Hub and the Women’s Council of Ireland have both welcomed the roll-out of free hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a “huge support for all menopausal Irish women who have struggled in silence with debilitating symptoms for too long.”
The Budget measure is part of a €35 million women’s healthcare package, will be introduced in January 2025 and will see the State fund the cost of treatment such as patches and other medicines.
The investment could save women up to €840 per year.
CEO Loretta Dignam said that free HRT will relieve the economic burden for women, most of whom have been paying for monthly products since they hit puberty and outlined that another progressive leap on women’s health could be taken in the form of free mid-life checks for women between the ages of forty five and sixty four.
She said such checks could diagnose bone and heart problems at an early stage, saving the State millions on treatment for advanced conditions such as osteoporosis.
The Irish Heart Foundation also welcomed this year’s Budget announcement of the introduction of the new e-cigarette tax and a €1 increase in the price of a packet of twenty cigarettes as “crucial protections for children and young people from nicotine addiction.”
The charity’s Director of Advocacy, Chris Macey, said: “Tax is a vital deterrent for young people to take up vaping and smoking and these measures will have a significant long-term health benefit.
“The new tax specifically targeting e-cigarettes is particularly important given the explosion of youth vaping in Ireland and fears they represent a gateway into smoking for a new generation.”
He continued:
“Given the fact that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on the planet, it is unfortunate that the introduction of the tax is not scheduled to take place until mid-2025.”
The hike brings the cost of a packet of the most popular brands to €18.05.
Agriculture
Macra President Ms Elaine Houlihan said “to say that our members are disappointed is an understatement, with so much money washing around government coffers, we had hoped that for once the right course of action would be followed in relation to young farmers and farming succession, we were foolish to think that.”
Speaking on agricultural taxation, Macra said that the renewal of stock relief for young farmers and partnerships up to 2027, the expansion of the accelerated capital allowance to include certain safety equipment and the expansion of stamp duty relief to include young farmers in company structures, were all welcome.
However, Ms. Houlihan said:
“Macra had called for these measures in our prebudget proposals as taxation remains one of the important policy levers to support young farmers and rural youth and government needs to be ambitious in using it to support young farmers.
“While the above are welcome and all parties in this government state support for family farms, none of the parties have yet been able to define what a family farm is.”
Ms. Houlihan went on to say “In reality this budget provides sops to our agricultural industry. Our members are tired of the platitudes and a lack of structural change.
“Clearly, no government party sees any future for rural Ireland except as a commuter belt for Dublin, Cork or Limerick.”
She concluded:
”Macra did not look for much, we want to see a future for farming in rural Ireland, we share this modest ambition with the other farming organisations, it’s a pity that such a sentiment is not present in the halls of Leinster house.”
Housing crisis
In relation to today’s Budget 2025 announcement, Wayne Stanley, Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland said:
“It is extraordinary that so much money could be expended and yet, so little done for those at the sharpest end of the housing crisis.”
The Simon Community welcomed the vacant homes tax, though expressed concern that it is insufficient to drive change.
Similarly, the increase in social welfare rate will be welcomed by those receiving them, but the organisation said that it is not a sufficient buffer to work as a protection to low-income households to prevent homelessness.
However, Mr. Stanley continued:
“The big picture is that the State needs to be working towards delivering 15,000 social homes a year. The Government has acknowledged that the current targets are insufficient.
“In our pre-budget submission, we had proposed an increase to fund the development of 12,500 social homes to move us closer to the target of 15,000.”
The organisation have said that while the Budget delivered a stay the course allocation for the 10,000 social homes in line with Housing for All, it is simply insufficient and an example of yet another budget where the rhetoric of homelessness being a ‘top priority’ is not in evidence.
Childcare
Early Childhood Ireland has voiced its strong concern following the announcement of Budget 2025.
The organisation’s CEO, Teresa Heeney, expressed disappointment at the measures representing an increase of just under €300m which the organisation believes will fail to deliver meaningful change for the Early Years and School Age Care system.
Ms. Heeney said:
“We are very concerned about the lack of proper additional investment in Budget 2025. Giving every child access to high-quality Early Years and School Age Care is transformative.
However, what the government has announced today is utterly insufficient and represents a missed opportunity to properly enhance a system that has the best interests of every child at its core.”
Commenting on the Budget announcement, Frances Byrne, Director of Policy at Early Childhood Ireland, said:
“The government had every opportunity to propose a five-year plan with a new investment target for Early Years and School Age Care, which would have provided much-needed certainty for parents, providers and staff.
We are already so far behind other rich countries. The reality is that following the Budget, with a general election pending, children, families, providers and staff will now have to wait until 2026 before new funding is allocated. This is just not acceptable when there is some €23 billion surplus available.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-01 09:36:00
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