Budget’s impending arrival puts focus on real politics

World of Politics with Harry McGee

It has had the makings of a highly unusual political week – a week that for once seemed to be about policy and actual political things rather than personality crises and stabs in the back.

Because we are reaching the foothills of the Budget which is now only little more than a fortnight away.

We already know that there will be increases in pensions and in welfare, plus some kind of tax concession – probably be a widening of the income tax and universal social charge bands.

Most of those gains will be wiped out by inflation, the mercury of which has been steadily rising this year.

Surprise, surprise, we also heard some from Leo Varadkar who reminds you a bit of the old slogan from The Irish Press of old: First with the News.

On a ministerial visit to Washington DC, the Tánaiste said a help-to-buy scheme for first-time homeowners is set in the upcoming budget. It was due to expire at the end of the year but now looks like it will go to the end of 2022.

Which is good news for first-time buyers for it’s a very generous incentive, much more attractive than the £3,000 relief from stamp duty that was available in my day (but then, house prices were only a fraction of what they are now a quarter of a century ago).

Help-to-buy allows first-time buyers to claim relief from income tax over the previous four years and can get as much as ten percent of the purchase price of the house. It is maxed out at €30,000.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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