So - after all the bluffing, counter-bluffing, posturing, negotiating and leaking, we now know the bulk of what’s contained in Budget 2017.
The full details will still be a few hours away, as ministers reveal drips and drabs of more information - but here are the main talking points.
1. Looking to buy a house? Good news... ish
The government can’t change the Central Bank rules on saving together a deposit, but it can help you pull the deposit together.
They’ve announced today that they’ll give you an income tax refund worth 5% of the value of the house (subject to a cap of €20,000) to help you buy a home. Basically, all the income tax you’ve paid in the four previous years will be refunded once you’ve bought a house, subject to the 20-grand limit.
Although you won’t actually get the money until you’ve bought the house, Michael Noonan says he’s spoken to the Central Bank and they WILL include the inevitable tax refund as part of your deposit - which should make it less onerous to pull the deposit together.
The catch? It must be a new build. If you’re buying a second-hand home, the scheme won’t count.
There’s not much help for you if you’re renting, but the ‘rent a room’ scheme for landlords - which is geared at providing digs for students - will be expanded so that landlords can earn slightly more money (€14,000 a year, up by €2k) before they have to pay tax on their earnings.
2. If you’re working, you’ll bring home slightly more money
The lowest three rates of Universal Social Charge are all being cut by 0.5%. In short, that means that for every €200 you get from your employer, you’ll be bringing home €1 more.
That might not sound like much - and for the average worker it’s only worth around 50 cent a day - but over the course of a year, someone on the average wage will bring home €183.50 more. (As Fianna Fáil says, it will cover the increased cost of your motor insurance, and probably not much more.)
If you’re on the minimum wage, meanwhile, your hourly rate will go up by 10c an hour - worth another €182 a year or so if you’re a full-time wage-slave.
3. If you’re not working, the Dole is going up a bit
For those aged over 26 there’ll be a €5 weekly increase in the Dole. For those of slightly lower ages, it’s less helpful - under 24s get just €2.70 a week, while 25-year-olds get €3.80.
Clever people tell us that the lower increases are because the Dole can’t go up by more than the minimum wage - but we suspect this might be an issue for some of the independent TDs in the government to get angry over.
4. If you’re older, good news - your pension and other payments are going up
Your weekly pension will be rising by €5 a week from March, and you’ll also get slight increases on other appropriate payments like the fuel allowance, the living alone allowance, and pensions for the blind or carers.
5. If you’re a parent, the State will help to cover your childcare costs
From next September a new scheme is kicking in whereby every child between 6 months and 3 years old will be entitled to a subsidy of some sort. There’ll also be a separate means-tested subsidy for children between 6 months and 15 years old.
At the time of writing we don’t quite know how much this is worth, but if you believe a Fine Gael press release (caveat emptor, eh?) it can be worth up to €960 a year.
6. The old reliables - bad news if you’re a smoker
It’s been confirmed that there WILL be a ‘sugar tax’ on fizzy drinks and the like, but you don’t have to worry about it for 18 months - we won’t introduce it until the UK does the same, and they’re not doing it until April 2018.
But if you’re a smoker it’s bad news - from midnight tonight (Tuesday night) there’ll be an extra 50 cent on a packet of 20, with a similar scale of increase on loose tobacco or pouches. You’re taking the hit so that the government has €65m extra to spend next year.
No such hard luck for those of you partial to a tipple or two - there’s no increase on the cost of a drink - and there’s also no increase on petrol or diesel.
