Tag Archives: Budget 2020

Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD speaking to the media after being on the Today with Seán O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio 1 about Budget 2020 on Wednesday

This afternoon.

Via Breakingnews:

Paschal Donohoe freezing welfare, tax bands and credits in this week’s budget have affected people who are already the worst off and will push up child-poverty-at-risk rates, according to leading think tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)…

Budget ‘disproportionally impacts welfare recipients’, according to ESRI (Eamon Quinn, Breakingnews)

Soal/Rollingnews

This afternoon.

Government Buildings, Dublin 2.

Josepha Madigan (above) Minister for the Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht outlined the spending available to her department in Budget 2020 – a reported  €354 million.

Some highlights.

In heritage:

€7 million will go to peatlands restoration and conservation works, resulting in 1,800 hectares of restored peatland in 2020, 100 jobs being generated, and 28 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being stored.

An additional €1 million will be allocated to nature conservation and biodiversity programmes under the National Parks and Wildlife Service

In Irish language:

Údarás na Gaeltachta will receive an additional capital allocation of €1m bringing its core capital allocation to €10m (an increase of over 11% on 2019). as well as an additional €200k in current funding for Gaeltacht co-operatives

In culture…

Arts Council funding for 2020 has increased by €5 million to €80 million. See yesterday’s post disputing that figure here]

€7.1 million in capital funding will be provided for the European City of Culture- Galway 2020

Screen Ireland is to receive additional funding of €1 million following the government’s decision to extend the Section 481 Film tax credit to 2024 and the regional uplift of 5%.

An additional €900,000 will be allocated to the Decade of Centenaries 2020 Programme and will include commemorative events such as Bloody Sunday on November 21 and the execution of Kevin Barry on November 1.

€1 million will be provided for the start of the transferring process of the National Symphony Orchestra to the remit of the National Concert Hall.

€250,000 will be provided to the amateur theatre sector.

Budget2020: Culture minister announces details of €354m funding; Arts Council funding highest in ten years (Irish Examiner)

Yesterday: Money For God’s Sake

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

Further to Budget 2020.

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht allocated ‘an additional €5 million’ (from €75m to €80m) to the Arts Council, who administer direct funding to Artists and Arts organisations…

 

“Given the very difficult budgetary environment in the context of Brexit, the Arts Council is pleased with the announcement of €80m in funding for 2020.

This investment will allow the Arts Council to continue its work in supporting artists to develop their practice, enabling organisations to create work of excellence and allowing people across the country have access to high quality arts experiences.

We look forward, once the Brexit uncertainty has been resolved, to continuing discussions with Minister Madigan on increased funding for the arts”.

Chair of the Arts Council, Prof Kevin Rafter (above)

However…

“A €5 million increase to the Arts Council is a diversion – €3.75 million of that is a reallocation of funding already accounted for, the real additional funding figure is €1.25 million.

How much of that is likely to make its way directly to Artists, Musicians, Writers, Dancers, Poets, Theatre Makers, Arts Workers and the Arts community in general?

They create employment, they contribute to our society, they pay their taxes. Many are working two, three part time jobs just to try and keep their heads above water.

All to make Art for our fellow citizens to enjoy, for our Government to amplify what a great place Ireland is to invest in and visit. And this paltry increase is how we recognise their value? It’s a slap in the face.”

Chair of the National Council For The Arts (NCFA) Angela Dorgan (above)

Mixed reaction to Budget 2020 from the arts sector (Irish Times)

Thanks Aillen Galvin

From top: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe with RTE Director General Dee Forbes; Sean O’Rourke and at a press conference following his Today show post-budget  broadcast

This morning.

Radio Centre, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

Via RTÉ:

A caller aged 68 is unhappy at recently losing his and wife’s eligibility to a medical card and seeing that in yesterday’s Budget over 70s have had the income threshold limit for medical cards increased to €1,050. He asks why under 70s didn’t have a threshold increase. Mr Donohoe says he had to make changes affordable to the funds he had available. He added that he would like to make further changes in the future when funds are available.

Meanwhile…

Mr Donohoe has defended the decision to make €16.8 million available for the greyhound industry. He was asked on Today with Sean O’Rourke why this money could not be ringfenced for carers. Mr Donohoe said that €1.4 billion overall had been put aside for carers.
He told a caller that Ministers Shane Ross and Michael Creed have looked to put significant changes in place to deal behaviour that he believed was “utterly unacceptable in the greyhound industry”.

Budget 2020: Reaction and Donohoe takes questions (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, T.D. speaking at the budget 2020 Press Conference in Government Buildings; Department of Justice press conference this morning

This morning.

It was thought that when the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe delivered Budget 2020 yesterday, no increase in funding was announced for the Data Protection Commission – which may soon be facing the State in court.

In light of this, solicitor and data protection expert Simon McGarr tweeted this morning:

“Greyhound racing gets an increase on €16m funding. The entire 100+ staffed DPC office gets €15.2m, no increase.

“For some reason the Dept in charge of the Public Services Card project didn’t increase funding for the regulator, despite huge work increase post-GDPR.”

However…

Irish Independent journalist Hugh O’Connell, at a Department of Justice Budget 2020 press conference this morning, tweetz:

For those asking, the government’s funding for the Data Protection Commissioner’s office is up by €1.6m next year.

Total budget of €16.9m for 2020.

The Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon recently found there is no legal basis for the State demanding the use of the Public Services Card in order to access a range of public services beyond social welfare payments.

Ms Dixon ordered that Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty’s department stop issuing new PSCs, with immediate effect, to people seeking a service outside of her department.

She also ordered that the department delete the supporting documentation – such as utility bills, etc – that the department has retained on the 3.2million card holders.

Ms Doherty is categorical her department will not be complying with these orders and has said the State will challenge the findings of Ms Dixon – in court, if needs be.

This morning…

Cianan Brennan, in The Irish Examiner, reported:

“The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection did not share the interim adversarial findings of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) regarding the Public Services Card (PSC) with any affected bodies apart from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

This was despite being specifically asked and in a position to do so.”

Social Protection slow to share draft report on PSC (Cianan Brennan, The Irish Examiner)

Meanwhile…

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has launched a petition calling for the card to be stopped and for data retained to be deleted.

The petition can be signed here

Related: Twitter and Facebook could be facing billions in fines after Ireland investigations (CNBC)

This afternoon.

Government Buildings, Dublin 2

Minister for Finance Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe presents his Budget 2020documents before addressing the Dail..

In the event of No Deal, €650 million is to be made available to support the Agriculture, Enterprise and Tourism sectors and to assist the most affected citizens and regions.

Of this, €220 million will be deployed immediately in the event of a No Deal.

From this, €110 million for enterprises has been identified for the first wave of funding for targeted new interventions to help vulnerable but viable firms adjust to a No Deal Brexit….

More as we get it it.

Update:

€2.5bn will be allocated to the Housing Programme in 2020, according to Minister Donohoe. A further €20m will go to homeless services

Budget 2020: Minister announcing measures in Dáil (RTÉ)

Earlier: The New Green Hard Brexit Budget 2020

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Via Political Irish

Today.

At 1pm.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is scheduled to present Budget 2020 in the Dáil.

Watch live in the link above.

Meanwhile, via RTÉ News:

The Budget had been expected to be a package worth €2.8bn, but it is understood that the increase in carbon tax and changes to other taxes, such as the dividend withholding tax, could push it closer to €3bn.

Minister Donohoe concluded his discussions last night with a Fianna Fáil delegation, following talks with the Independent Alliance on its key concerns.

It is understood that some of both parties’ key budgetary demands were met.

An expansion in the medical card scheme for the over 70s and other health and social welfare spending increases are expected.

Donohoe says absolutely no surprises in Budget 2020 (RTÉ)

Budget 2020 preview: ‘No chocolates, some smarties’ in €1bn Donohoe budget plan (Irish Examiner)

Budget 2020: Here’s what to expect (RTÉ)

This afternoon.

On RTÉ’s News At One…

RTÉ Online’s Motoring Editor Donal Byrne told broadcaster Áine Lawlor that motorists can expect a “double whammy” in next week’s budget in terms of the carbon tax.

He said it’s likely the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will announce tax increases on new diesel and petrol-run cars.

And he said a €6 per tonne carbon tax increase is also on the cards.

Ireland’s carbon tax – which hasn’t been increased since 2014 – currently stands at €20 per tonne.

Mr Byrne explained:

“When you go to fill your car at the pumps, it’s going to cost you somewhere between €1.20 and €1.60 extra to fill your car.”

But you get to save the world from imminent EXTINCTION.

Which is nice.

Earlier: A Modest Proposal

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Catherine Murphy

Yesterday.

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe  for the following:

‘The amount collected to date in carbon tax; the methods of dispersing the revenue generated from the tax; the purposes for which the revenue collected from the tax has been used for the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter?”

In a written answer, Minister Donohoe responded:

‘The total annual net receipts from carbon tax are set out in the following table:

Total Net Receipts:

2010; €223,084,537

2011: €298,231,058

2012: €353,954,210

2013: €388,376,990

2014: €385,361,885

2015: €418,996,237

2016: €430,247,558

2017: €419,603,362

2018: €431,131,923

Total: 3,348,987,760

Carbon tax receipts to end August 2019 were approximately €281,800,000, some €20 million (6.8%) behind forecast. To date the revenue from carbon tax has been remitted to the central fund and therefore used to fund public services.’

Carbon Tax Yield (Oireachtas,ie)

Earlier today.

Fianna Fáil TD’s Michael McGrath and Barry Cowen held a press conference to give an “update” on next week’s Budget 2020 process.

Virgin One Media’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly noted:

Oh.

More as they get it.