02-07-2025
‘Only so much money in pot' Budget blow as Harris proposes social welfare cash FREEZE for thousands on specific payment
PEOPLE on the dole should not get the same budget pay bounce as pensioners while Ireland is at full employment, Tanaiste Simon Harris has claimed.
The
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Tanaiste Simon Harris indicated that the Government may freeze the jobseekers allowance at its current level
Credit: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA Wire
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Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said Trump's tariffs will hit Irish businesses hard
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There is just one week left until
The meeting was told to expect a new norm of 10 per cent tariffs on goods being exported to the
Finance Minister
However, the Finance Minister said Ireland's economy will still continue to grow and the jobs market will remain strong with the country currently at full employment.
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In their general election manifesto,
With businesses struggling to find workers to fill vacant positions, Tanaiste Simon Harris today indicated that the Government may freeze the
Asked if the Government will separate the jobseekers allowance from other welfare hikes in the budget, the Tanaiste told the Irish Sun: 'I do always think there is merit in not looking at social welfare payments with uniformity across the board.
'We've been talking a lot about college fees the last couple of days unexpectedly perhaps but roughly speaking the equivalent of €1.20 or €1.25 on every social welfare payment is roughly the equivalent of reducing the college fees by €1,000.
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'So budgets are all about choices. They are all about balance and there is only so much money in the pot so I will keep an open mind on that.
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'I'm not convinced that you need to see as significant a rise in the dole as you do in the pension for example at a time when our country is in full employment and there's lots of supports out there for people getting into work and there is other supports out there for people who can't work for very many good reasons.
'That is my view but we will thrash all that out in the budget and there's a long way to go.'
Government leaders have
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NO BONUS PAYMENTS
The Budget 2025 package - the
- was made up of a mixture of increased payments, 10
for social welfare recipients, a minimum wage increase and tax changes.
It included two double
Budget 2025 also provided an additional October cost-of-living double payment as well as the usual social welfare Christmas bonus.
But Donohoe and Public Expenditure Minister
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COLLEGE FEE ROW
This year's lack of cost of living package has led to a row between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael over college fees which were temporarily lowered by €1,000 in the last budget but
Public Expenditure Minister
Higher Education Minister James Lawless said: "The indications are – and we haven't entered budget discussions in earnest yet as we're engaged in the national development plan at the moment which obviously will have a significant uplift in
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'So all of us in any walk of life have to play the hands we're dealt."
Asked to clarify, the Minister said: 'The once-off supports – and they were phrased very clearly as once-off supports – are not being provided for as it stands because there is no cost of living package being made available.
'That may change coming into the budget. It's a matter for the Finance Minister more so than myself but that is what's coming."
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Government leaders have ruled out any cost of living bonuses for the upcoming budget
Credit: Getty Images - Getty
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