To say Ireland has the right idea: Budget 2023

[50percentNamaste50percentGoFuckYourself]

I watched agog at last weeks UK mini budget...an absolute travesty.

Today was Ireland's Budget 2023, which was much more impressive.
Hightlights include:

25% reduction in childcare fees
Extension of free GP care to cover half the country
Free contraception
Large reductions in third level fees (which were already a third of the UK)
Increases in lower tax bands
Increases in all social welfare payments
Double payment of child benefit
Electricity credits of 600€ per household
Reduced tax on fuels and energy costs
Increase rent tax credits
Funding for 10,000 new social homes
Increased third level grants
Removal hospital charges and free contraception extended

It's all concentrated on the cost of living, on making things easier for people on low and average wages, looking after those with less.

It's what a budget in these times should be

@50percentNamaste50percentGoFuckYourself In my area childcare is absolutely abysmal tbf, our afterschool can’t take more than 20 kids due to staff shortage (the school is big). In my experience most plp I know have family help and the rest it’s a struggle.
I agree with you though that the budget is v positive!

Genuine question: (someone asked you before ) if someone has cancer /in icu etc and no medical card , no private insurance are you saying you don’t have to pay your hospital stay per night ? That they have wavered this ?

Im with bord na mona and pay 324 for the year.

@Doggiedoodoos my dc will be starting secondary soon and the bus for us is quoted as 700 per year. Are you saying there’s now a cap for everyone?

Milk 2L- €2.09, £1.55
Hovis 800g- €1.89, £1.20
Mince 5% fat 500g- €4.50, £2.89
Coco pops 750g- €5.95, £3.50

A very small example of items in Tesco Ireland vs Tesco UK. None are on special offer and I chose them all at random.

€14.43 vs £9.14

Is it private or bus eireann? A few months ago the fee of the 350 was scrapped for at least this year.

There's no inpatient charge for anyone anymore. But it used to be waived a lot of the time anyway, I have relatives who never had to pay with no medical card, they just tick undue hardship on the accounts form and no bill comes. I heard thats very common on the cancer wards/ICU.

@50percentNamaste50percentGoFuckYourself I had no idea. My friend paid over 100 euros a while ago for a stay and I saw the list of prices in the hospital a couple of years ago for day stay / night stay etc .
Thats fantastic that it’s wavered now !

@Doggiedoodoos If it is Bus Eireann, and they do bring back fees, it's capped at €500 per family

This is my council tax amount per annum £1508.84.

In addition to that I pay £0.52 per week for bin collection (which should be included in the damned council tax but it's not apparently!).

In addition to that I pay £18.06 per month for water!

There are taxes in the UK that don't always get mentioned.

The NHS is free but it's not much use if you can't access it due to prohibitive waiting times.

If the bus for the year is 700 then it is a private bus so wouldn't be free. There is no indication the school bus will be free next year anyway. I was raging there was so much nonsense over it this year, not exactly going to persuade them to do it free next year too. They should never announced that it was free while you could still apply. Everyone who usually gets the bus had applied way back in April. I had the kids tickets paid for before they announced it was free at all.

I had no idea that hospital stays could be wavered or capped at 800 per year !
I think the bus is bus eireann …

Yes - 100% this!

As someone who lived in both I would say my quality of life is WAY better here in Ireland.
-no water charges
-no council tax
-my pay Is more than double what it was in the U.K.
-I have private health care paid for by my workplace
-dc2 had two years free (100% free childcare 8:30-12)
-food (I shop in Lidl) is much of a muchness!
-child benefit-240 per month for 2dc (not means tested) we didn’t get it in the U.K.

There’s more I prefer about over here but I can’t think right now.

I think we can safely say the UK and Ireland are having very similar problems and it's not very nice for anyone ATT.

@JoannaNewsom tesco is one of the more expensive supermarkets here in Ireland. Aldi or lidl is way cheaper imo

Bus eireann school buses aren't €700.

I dont think the point of the thread was to say that Ireland has no problems. Moreso that ireland has had a budget that has tried to help lots of people, not just tax cuts for the rich. A country that is trying sowhat to help people vs a country that appears to be saying let them eat cake(from the foodbank).

Public transport school fares are good at 65 cent though the service itself isn't great as they often don't turn up.

I am not sure why there isn’t a better school bus service when Public transport is packed with students every morning, some so young.

Really? I pay €25/month with Oxigen.

I think my biggest take away from the budget is that the government doesn’t hate us. The Tories seem to want to kill off as many poor people as possible.

I dont think the point of the thread was to say that Ireland has no problems. Moreso that ireland has had a budget that has tried to help lots of people, not just tax cuts for the rich. A country that is trying sowhat to help people vs a country that appears to be saying let them eat cake(from the foodbank).

This.

Rural non collection here €27.50 a month

*bin

No, I think we can say that the UK's problems are partly of their own making, are far worse, and their government is doing very little to help the people who are suffering.
Ireland on the other hand has much more money to play with and is spending it on tryng to help the people who need it.

Quite a big difference actually. In Ireland you don't feel hated for being poor, and you don't feel like your government doesn't care at all about you.

The hospital price lists are for private hospitals, not public. Public hospitals only ever had the bed charge and a&e charge, everything else was free.

How are you not in the top tax bracket at €40k? Do you have your spouse credits? They increased when employees enter the top tax bracket of €42k to €39k yesterday from €36k (approx).

Ireland is one of the only countries where workers on the median wage of €50k are in the top tax bracket.

When you take usc and other deductions, employees earning over €46k are often taxed at an effective rate of 52%.

Yesterday's budget will not effectively help the most vulnerable in society such as children living in poverty. The free primary school books is on the recommendation of the EU and won't help those with €€€ secondary school books.

I think your thread is very misleading and a bit goady.