Ireland unveils 11-bn-euro budget to tackle energy, cost-of-living crisis
Ireland announced an 11-billion-euro budget for the upcoming year to combat mounting pressures caused by the cost-of-living and energy crises precipitated by the war in Ukraine.
Finance minister for Ireland's three-party governing coalition, Paschal Donohoe, announced the measures -- comprising extra spending of 6.9 billion euros and 4.1 billion euros in one-off expenditure -- in the lower house of parliament.
The budget, he said, was "focused on helping individuals, families and businesses deal with rising prices".
"As we have seen all too clearly over the past few years with Brexit, with Covid and now with the war in Ukraine, unforeseen risks and challenges are becoming more frequent in their occurrence," Donohoe said.
"The war in Ukraine has sent shock waves throughout the global economy and this is most evident in energy and commodity markets, where prices surged at the onset of the war and have remained high," he added.
The budget outlined a provision for 600 euros in household energy credits, payments capped at 10,000 euros a month to help eligible businesses with energy bills and an increase for entry to the top tax rate to 40,000 euros.
The levels of spending were possible, Donohoe said, because of a 10-billion-euro increase in tax revenue in 2022, driven by corporate tax receipts.
"The strength in tax revenue has allowed us to have the means to undertake such a response," he said.
