01 Oct Budget 2025

This is a Budget for working families and parents.

 It is a Budget that puts more money back in people’s pockets at a time when they need it the most.

 It is a Budget that will deliver more housing, open more hospital beds, and build more schools.

 It is a Budget that secures your future and ensures we put money aside to protect us into the future.

 

Cost of raising a family

Fine Gael is cutting the cost of raising a family by

• Providing two double child benefit payments to every parent in the country before Christmas.
• Providing free schoolbooks for senior cycle students
• Cutting college fees by €1,000
• Increasing Maternity, Paternity and Parental benefit by €15 a week
• Extending hot school meals to all primary school children
• Waiving the state exam fee for another year
• Reducing the costs of school transport and reducing the distance criteria so more students qualify
• Giving two energy credits to help with the cost of heating your home this winter.
• A baby boost of €460 for every child born after January 1st

 

Fine Gael is ensuring that those who need the most help get it by

• Every pensioner will receive an increase of €12 in their pension;
• There will be an extension to the fuel allowance to help more people qualify;
• Automatic companion pass for people aged over 70
• Our carers will receive a significant package including an increase in the Carer Support Grant;
• Changing the rules to ensuring more carers will qualify
• We will extend Carer’s benefit to self employed
• Carers will now be for eligible to apply for fuel allowance
• Increasing the Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) for children with disabilities by €20;
• We’ve invested in special needs education with 1,600 SNAs and 700 special needs teachers.
• And a significant capital investment to help build more special needs places.
• We have also increased the foster care allowances to help foster parents.
• There will be a €12 increase for weekly payments for carers and people with disabilities too.
• And there will be an additional payment to children living in poverty will be made to help. That costs €80 million.
• And children living in poverty will be able to access hot meals under a new scheme being rolled out.

Helping you with your bills

• Two energy credits worth a total of €250 will be released before Christmas
• Extending reduced costs for public transport for another 12 months
• Free public transport for children aged under 9
• Increase in the rent tax credit to €1,000

Putting more money back in your pocket – Tax

• We have increased the point at which people pay the higher rate of tax from €42,000 to €44,000
• We are cutting the USC by 1% on incomes between €25,000 to €70,000
• This will mean a single person on an income over €50,000 per year will pay €859 less this year in tax compared to last year.
• A full time worker on €56,000 will get €916 in tax savings.
• That’s 50% more than in the Sinn Fein budget.
• You can now get €1,500 tax free from your employer in a voucher up to five times a year.
• We are increasing the stamp duty on the bulk purchasing of home by investors from 10% to 15% to protect homes for young couples
• Introducing a new tax on vapes
• Increasing the threshold at which people pay inheritance tax – a significant win for middle income families. This will increase to €400,000 from €335,000.

For businesses

• Retail & Hospitality sectors will receive €4,000 energy grant by Christmas to cover the cost of higher energy bills.
• There will be significant tax changes that will help small businesses/the self-employed including changing the VAT thresholds to allow small businesses/self-employed keep more of their own money.
• There will be changes to the self-employed earned income tax credit to allow them keep more of their hard-earned money.
• There will be changes to the Capital Gains Tax Retirement Relief to help families transfer a business to the next generation.
• We are making it more attractive for investors to invest in innovative start-ups (Angel Investor Capital Gains Tax Relief).
• We are enhancing the Start Up Relief for new small companies, making it easier for small, owner-managed start-ups to survive and grow.
• We are increasing the relief available for employees/investors to invest in growing companies (Employment Investment Incentive, Start-up Relief for Entrepreneurs)
• We are changing the Research and Development Tax Credit to provide valuable cash-flow to companies undertaking smaller R&D projects or engaging with the credit for the first time.
• We are introducing two new incentives to support the TV and film sector.
• There will be a €20 million fund to help upskill staff with €8 million targeted at smaller businesses.
• Employers will be able to give €1,500 in tax-free vouchers to staff, spread across five instalments. This is up from the existing €1,000 limit and provides more flexibility to employers on how to pay staff.
• We have also significantly increased the purchasing power of their customers through a major tax package and cost of living measures.
• We have not increased sick leave days (which were due to double for January)
• We have deferred auto enrolment until September.

• The Minister for Enterprise will also announce a review of the cost base of businesses and timelines for living wage etc to ensure the pace is much more appropriate

Housing

• We’re delivering the biggest Housing budget ever in the history of the State.
• 2,000
• The housing budget is being boosted by €3 billion from the sale of AIB shares which will go to the Land Development Agency, upgrading water and energy infrastructure.
• This combined funding will lad to 6,400 new affordable and cost rental homes including 2,000 homes under the First Home scheme. A scheme Sinn Fein would scrap.
• We’re extending Help to Buy for until 2029 – offering €30,000 in support to first-time buyers. A scheme Sinn Fein would scrap.
• Increasing the rent tax credit by €250 in 2024 and next year. It is now worth €1,000 in total for an individual, €2,000 for a couple and €3,000 for three people sharing
• Increasing the stamp duty on bulk purchase of homes from 10% to 15%
• Protecting people who find themselves homeless with a €303 million budget for homeless services.
• We are allocating €100 million to adapt the homes of older people and people with a disability.
• We are also investing €92 million more to retrofit 2,500 social homes next year.

Support for farmers to plan for the future

• Funding for farming will increase to over €2 billion for the first time ever.
• A tillage scheme will provide a €100/ha payment on all sown ground in 2024.
• Funding for suckler farmers will be increased to bring payments under the National Beef Welfare Scheme from €50/calf to €75/calf.
• Sheep farmers are in line for an increase too with plans to make payments of €25/ewe, up from €20/ewe this year.
• The dairy calf welfare scheme will get a new bolt-on to deliver €20/calf to the breeder and a new €20/payment to the farmer who rears the calf.
• Farmers will also benefit from increased thresholds under inheritance tax changes secured by Fine Gael. There will be changes to retirement relief to prevent investors benefiting from a support for genuine farmers.

 Law and Order

• Minister McEntee has secured a record Budget which will ensure a step change in funding for the justice sector
• There is a significant increase in funding for An Garda Síochána which will recruit 800-1,000 Gardaí and provide more public order equipment for Gardaí on the beat
• There is also substantial funding to expand the prison service, with 1,100 new prison places within the existing estates in the next 5 years
• A significant increase will bring the funding for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence to €70 million, which is an almost trebling of the funding to this sector since Minister McEntee took office. This new funding will ensure we are on track to double the number of refuge spaces as part of the Zero Tolerance strategy
• We will invest more in our courts system make it more efficient and work faster for victims
• There is also increased funding to continue to ramp up our immigration system and speed up decision making

Health:

The Budget for Health will increase to €24.3 billion.

This will open 330 new beds and 160 community beds.

It will allow for the expansion of five emergency Departments in Cork, Mullingar, Mater,  and open six new minor injury units.

It will develop two new surgical hubs in Swords and Galway

This funding will allow for free HRT and expand funding and eligibility for IVF.

The mental health budget will significantly increase to €1.4 billion.