Details of the €1.3 billion package cost of living measures were announced after a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday morning.Carers, pensioners, lone parents, disabled people and other recipients of weekly welfare payments will receive a once-off bonus payment in the spring of €200 on top of their usual benefit.
The Government is also waiving exam fees for the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert in 2023, at a cost of €11 million.There was also an agreement to prepare for the expansion of the Hot School meals programme in non-DEIS primary schools, and the programme will be extended to all DEIS primary schools from September.The hospitality industry has been granted another extension to the lowered VAT rate of 9 per cent.
He said the 9 per cent VAT rate for hospitality is being extended until August 31st but “this will be the final extension”. He said this means the Government will still have “the financial firepower to act again in the autumn in the context of Budget 2024 depending on where we stand with the cost of living then.”
Mr Varadkar said it is important to bear in mind that pay rises for public servants have kicked in over recent weeks, there is an increase in the minimum wage and there has been income tax cuts and the rent credit. Asked if bringing in a modest fee was an attempt to prevent the scheme being over-subscribed, Mr Varadkar insisted the free scheme brought in last year was “a phenomenal success”.
Sinn Féin Party leader Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle O'Neill at the Culloden Hotel in Belfast on February 17th. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Ms McDonald said out Leinster House on Tuesday that she could not understand how the “three men leading Government” having spent “two months in talks” could produce a package that “is silent on housing”.
The Sinn Féin leader said so many of the State’s young people are forced out of Ireland because they “can’t afford a roof over their heads”. Mr Varadkar said he was interested to hear Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty speaking on a recent radio interview saying they wanted the VAT rate to go back to the 13.5 per cent rate “right away” and extend excise reductions on petrol and diesel “only until May and that you would have VAT on electricity and gas go up in May as well”.
The price of fuel is going to piss people off its fcking wrong. Can't afford to live in cities have to commute and these bastards take it off you in excise and tax.
Cost of living measures published behind a paywall. 😂🤦🏼♀️
There is an eviction moratorium. What more do you want?
Unless the renter is an older person or has a disability or drives a car or has a kid at school or eats out.