MINISTER BRIAN LENIHAN announced the state’s toughest Budget yesterday, with changes to tax bands and a range of social welfare cuts.

Here’s TheJournal.ie’s by-the-numbers guide to Budget 2011:

• 4,2: number of cents added to the price of a litre of petrol and diesel respectively, as of midnight last night
• 3: the child which loses out most on child benefit cuts
• 3: people arrested at protests outside Leinster House (and later released)
• 7: the percentage charged on income over €16,016 for the new universal social charge
• 300,000: number of extra taxpayers due to tax band changes
• 20: number of euros the average person’s after-tax pay has been reduced by per week
• 6: euros per week the jobseeker’s allowance is cut by
• 14,000: euros cut from the Taoiseach’s annual salary
• 250,000: the annual wage President Mary McAleese volunteered to receive (a drop of €75,000)
• 0: percentage change to VAT charged on consumer goods and rates on cigarettes and alcohol
• 4: percentage reduction in student grants
• 40,000: in euros, the ceiling introduced to the artist’s tax exemption scheme
• 12.5: Ireland’s corporation tax rate in per cent, which remains unchanged
• 1: people mistaken for Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae yesterday
• 2013: year the Business Expansion Scheme (renamed the Employment and Investment Incentive) has been extended to
• 74: percentage of people who thought the Budget proposals are unfair, according to TheJournal.ie’s Budget poll
• 2,000: in euros, the flat-rate higher education charge for the first child of a family to attend third-level

Read over the main points of Lenihan’s announcement >

More details on how the Budget brings over 300,000 into the tax net >

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