The average worker will save around a euro a day under cuts to the Universal Social Charge being announced today.
It’s only a few months since Michael Noonan told the Dáil that the USC could probably never be abolished - but with an election in the offing, and the financial emergency now clearly receding, the government will today announce plans to get rid of it entirely within five years.
Today it begins that process by cutting all three of the lower rates of the charge - for those on the average wage it’ll save 367 euro a year, or around a euro a day.
On the spending side, there’ll be 500 extra Gardai, an increase in child benefit and the minimum wage, and a cut to the pupil-teacher ratio.
Childcare will be a big factor - with greater access to subsidised services, the introduction of two weeks’ paid paternity leave, and free preschool or childcare for all children once they turn three.
The only new taxes will be an increase on cigarettes and, quite possibly, a sugar tax - which alone will pay for the first major step on this coalition’s plan for re-election.
