Budget 2023: double payment of family allowances and higher tax bracket only for income above €40,000

There will be a double payment of monthly family allowances and a single payment of €500 for carers and disabled people in tomorrow’s budget.

ine Gael is also said to have reached an agreement that the maximum tax rate of 40% will only apply to income above €40,000.

The significant change in the tax system should be worth €800 for a single person and €1,600 for a couple with two incomes.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris also secured a tuition fee cut he has been campaigning for in recent months.

The purchase aid scheme which grants a tax reduction of €30,000 to first-time buyers will be extended for two years.

It comes as childcare costs are set to be cut by up to €170 a month under a deal struck by the coalition parties.

Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman pushed for a major childcare package in Tuesday’s budget to ease the financial burden on parents.

The agreement concluded by the Minister of the Greens will see the State grant a financial subsidy to crèches to reduce their costs.

The new funding will be in place from next year and is one of the key elements of the budget.

A 20% reduction in public transport fees – a program championed by the Green Party and Taoiseach Micheál Martin – will be extended for another year.

Discussions are ongoing over hikes in welfare rates, with government sources indicating the final figures will be between 10 and 15 euros, with sources suggesting it could be closer to 12 euros.

However, a double social assistance payment after the budget and a Christmas bonus payment have been agreed, as well as a single double payment of child benefit.

The development comes as all primary school students will receive free textbooks each year from next September, in a historic move to eliminate this annual cost to parents.

A further reduction in class sizes in primary schools will also be announced in tomorrow’s budget, according to government sources.

Additional funding to get thousands of students back to their seats on the school bus this year is also on the way.

Increased spending on special education will lead to the creation of 370 additional classes – 234 in primary, 136 in secondary – for students with additional needs next September.

The recruitment of more Special Educational Needs Officers (SENOs) to help parents ensure that a child with special needs receives the supports to which they are entitled was also agreed,

Along with additional SENOs, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) will receive funding for more administrative staff to enable it to improve its service to families and schools.

Overall, the NCSE’s annual funding is set to nearly double next year, with an injection of almost €13 million, the biggest increase ever to its budget.

This follows a pledge from Deputy Minister for Special Education Josepha Madigan last week that the council has an “appropriate level of staff to ensure it can deliver on its commitments and maintain a standard of service in an expanding environment”.

Next year will also see the recruitment of more special education teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs), with the number of SNAs expected to top 20,000 for the first time.

As with other parts of society and the economy, schools are also in line for higher capitation grants to meet spiraling bills.

Under the free books initiative, schools will receive grants to purchase and distribute books and associated workbooks in bulk, on an annual basis.

It will save parents an average of €110 per child, in current terms, while the overall cost to the state will be around €47 million per year.

Currently, there is a pilot free book program for schools in disadvantaged areas, while all other schools receive a limited grant to cover book costs.

Almost all primary schools run book rental programs, supported by the state grant, but parents would pay a fee.

Parent and child advocacy groups have been campaigning for free textbooks for years, and it’s an issue to which Education Minister Norma Foley is personally committed.

In its recent pre-budget submission, children’s charity Barnardos reiterated its call for free textbooks and said the average annual cost to parents of a primary school pupil was €110.

This will be the third successive budget to announce an improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in primary schools, as part of bringing classes up to international standards.

Last year’s PTR cut brought primary school staffing levels down to a record high of one teacher for every 24 pupils – 24:1 – which came into effect this month.

Following Budget 2023, this will increase to 23:1 next September.

The PTR is a tally of all teachers in a school, including special education teachers and, even with recent cuts, Irish primary classes remain the largest in the EU.

The effect of this government’s first PTR improvement, in Budget 2020, was to reduce class sizes to 22.8 in the year 2021/2022, still three students per class above the European standard of 20.

Class sizes are even smaller in September due to the 2022 budget, and will be even smaller next September, following tomorrow’s announcement. But Ireland’s national teachers’ organization (INTO) had campaigned for a further improvement in staffing levels in the 2023 budget – a cut to 22:1 in staff allocation – to accelerate progress towards the average EU class size.

Ms Foley is also said to have secured additional funding to help solve the school bus problem.

Thousands of children who normally travel on the transport service have lost out this year due to a surge in demand on foot following the government’s decision not to charge tickets for 2022/2023.

There are different categories of students on the school transport service. Students who meet the eligibility criteria are guaranteed a seat and, where there is available capacity, tickets are randomly allocated to non-eligible applicants as “concessionaire” passengers.

The high number of applications, which included eligible students who had not applied for a ticket in previous years, presented challenges when it came to finding enough buses and short-term drivers to meet demand during the intermediate tourist season.

Bus Éireann, which operates the service – largely using private contractors – has focused on meeting its obligation to exceptional eligible pupils.

The problem Ms Foley faced was the thousands of concessionary passengers who came to rely on the service.

As well as securing funding for more buses, it is understood that there is an additional €10 million in the special cost-of-living package for a fuel subsidy for the school bus service.

Meanwhile, an additional 800 new Gardaí have been secured by Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

Separately, the VAT rate for hospitality will drop from the reduced pandemic rate of 9% to 13.5% at the end of February.