Budget 2016: Here are the main things you need to know from today’s announcement

Don’t worry folks, the price of booze will stay as it is.

Everything else seems insignificant on the day that it was confirmed that Paul O’Connell will never play for Ireland again, but there was also the small matter of the Budget taking place.

Here, in no particular order, are the main things you need to know from today’s announcement at Leinster House.

• Excise duty on cigarettes to increase by 50 cent. Most cigarette packets will cost €10.50 from midnight tonight
• Old Age Pension to increase by €3 a week
• Child benefit to increase by €5 a month from January 2
• 600 new Gardai to be recruited in 2016
• Allocation for emergency accommodation for homeless people to be increased by €17 million
• 12 cent charge on ATM transactions to replace €5 stamp duty on debit and ATM cards
• Minimum wage to increase from €8.65 to €9.15 per hour from 1 January 2016
• 2,260 new additional teaching posts to be provided in 2016, including 600 new resource teachers
• Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients will be restored to 75 per cent of the recipient’s weekly payment. Dole claimant receiving unemployment benefit of €188 will get a bonus of €141; pensioner receiving €230 will receive a bonus of €173
• Free GP care scheme to be extended to children aged under 12 (subject to negotiations)
• €50 million for events and initiatives to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Easter Rising
• 2 weeks statutory paid paternity leave for fathers to be introduced
• Free pre-school childcare to be made available for children from 3 years until they start primary education or reach the age of five and a half years
• Fuel allowance to be increased by €2.50 to €22.50 per week

Universal Social Charge (USC)

• Entry threshold to rise from €12,012 to €13,000. 1.5% rate reduced to 1% for first €12,012 of income. 3.5% rate drops to 3% on increased threshold of €18,668.
• Top rate of 7% reduced to 5.5% for income in excess of €18,668, up to €70,044

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