Ireland Budget 2009

granger

granger

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  • Tax relief on medical expenses capped at the standard rate
  • Stamp duty on ATM cards to fall from €10 to €5
  • For cars with enginers over 2.5 litres and in CO2 bands E, F and G motor tax is to rise 5%
  • Motor tax up 4% for engines below the 2.5 litre threshold and CO2 bands A to D
  • Pension to rise by €7 per week
  • Stamp duty on cheques to rise from 30 cents to 50 cents per cent
  • Top rate of commercial property stamp duty cut from 9% to 6%
  • Increase of 2% in capital gains tax rate
  • Automatic entitlement to a medical card for over70s to be abolished
  • Fuel allowance increased €2 a week to €20 per week
  • Increase in standard rate tax band of €2,000 for a married couple
  • Increase in standard rate tax band by €1,000 for a single person
  • Duty on wine to increase by 50 cents a litre
  • Ministers and some senior civil servants to take 10% pay cut
  • Carer's benefit and carer's allowance to rise by €6.50 per week
  • €889 million investment for capital education projects
  • Standard rate of Vat to increase by 0.5% to 21.5% from December 1st
  • €2 billion in tax has to be raised – Lenihan
  • €5 million for warmer homes scheme
  • €1.65 billion to be spent to housing programmes in 2009
  • Government to take an equity share in affordable housing
  • €265 million capital investment for third level education projects
  • Inflation to ease to 2.5% on average in 2009
  • Investment of more than €300 million in science and technology
  • €179 million for Science Foundation Ireland
  • Decentralisation programme deferred until 2011, pending a review
  • Fuel allowance to rise by €29 a week from January 1st
  • Lowest level of social welfare payment to rise to €204.30 per week
  • State faces the most challenging economic and fiscal situation in a generation – Lenihan
  • Targeted early retirement scheme for the HSE
  • Child benefit for 18-year-olds to cease from 2010
  • €400 annual grant for over 70s who do not qualify for automatic medical card
  • Social welfare spending to increase by 8.4% to €19.6 billion
  • Child benefit to be halved for 18-year-olds from January 1st
  • GDP expected to decline by 1.5% in 2008
  • Family income supplement thresholds to rise by €10 per week per child
  • Government plans to reduce deficit to 6.5% of GDP in 2009
  • Social welfare package of €515 million
  • 3.6% increase in gross current spending in 2009
  • Unemployment in 2009 to average at 7.3%
  • Government to reduce the number of state agencies by 41
  • Air travel tax of €10 per passenger, €2 for shorter journeys
  • Duty on petrol to rise by 8 cents a litre
  • Levy of €200 for car parking provided by employers in major urban areas
  • Duty on cigarettes to increase by 50 cents for a packet of 20
  • First-time buyers tax relief up from 20% to 25% in years 1 and 2
  • 1% income levy on earnings up to €100,100, and 2% on earnings over that
 
Presuming you earn less then a hundred grabd a year you will lose 1% of your gross salary -someone on 50K would lose a little less then a tenner a week.Thats not so bad but its all the sneaky little taxes that do the damage.
 
A ten euro tax to leave the country. With the dwindling almost dead influence of the church and the passing of the older generation, Fianna Fail will soon no longer be able to call on its power voters
 
Taxes on travel within the EU should be illegal. Freedom of movement of workers? My arse. A test case awaits.
 
Doom & Gloom, I've just been out for my latest helping.

Why is everyone so miserable? I've seen the light. Gone are the young, green and innocent. I'm moving into the unmarried mothers sector. That is where the killing is to be made.

Married mothers of Tallaght beware...
 
Tallaghtfornia is home, at least the times I cant get a train home or have to work in the morning. I will admit freely to not liking life in Dublin.
 
What an absolute cock up this budget has been.

The inability to get a budget through as stated should be a strong signal for government resignation.

Letting it be known that every key aspect of the budget is available for renegotiation is a disaster for the economy.

A general election at this time would be a disaster for the economy.

Maybe the solution is to pretend the first budget was a dry run, completely scrap it and try again in the first week of December. If it can't be voted through resign and let someone else have a go. It may not be a very clever solution, in that it doesn't make them look very clever, but I'd marginally favour it to a general election where promises would have to be made to get elected, with no opportunity to make excuses for non implementation, which would put the country in complete shite.

My tuppence worth is that they should have kept it simple given they (we)were unexpectantly in more shite than they (we) realised-

- Freeze the bands
- Stick the Standard rate up 1%
- Stick the high rate up 3%
- Expand PRSI limits
- Say this is intended as a 1 year temporary measure while medical cards/education cuts and all the other shite etc are being negotiated/assessed but putting it clearly on the table which areas will be hit.
 
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Good suggestion, I didn't mind the levy so much as we are in shit but targetting over 70s sucks and still sucks. I don't think they should be means tested at all. The people who where more productive and paid more tax during their lives are being punished for that.
 
Standard rate of Vat to increase by 0.5% to 21.5% from December 1st
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Ouch, missed that one. Now a full 4% higher than the North. And just in time for the Xmas shoppers too. Nice.
 
Havn't been reading up as much on this as I would if I was at home, but what do people make of the storm over the medical cards for over-70's? Seems to be at the centre of the storm anyway.
 
trackside528 said:
Havn't been reading up as much on this as I would if I was at home, but what do people make of the storm over the medical cards for over-70's? Seems to be at the centre of the storm anyway.
Click to expand...

Harney has been pushing for a U.S style health service since she got in.(yes a shit one) She saw a chance to get that one into the budget while Bill and Ben where napping. It's about the lowest stunt I can remember an Irish governent pulling.Behan has secured his seat for the next election by resigning over it. We like our rebel FF, TD's in Wicklow.
 
I love Wicklow, live on its border and spend a day walking there once a week. It also engendered my hero, Parnell.

But I can never forgive you Dick Roche, even if I have at last got over Joe Jacob's iodine tablets.
 
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