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A COST-OF-LIVING PACKAGE will be contained in October’s bumper budget, Taoiseach Simon Harris said today.
Finance Minister Jack Chambers has already confirmed that any one-off measures in Budget 2025 will be on a much lower scale than seen in previous years.
The Taoiseach said today that the new cost-of-living package will help families and householders this year, as people are “still financially hurting”.
Harris said the Government is looking at measures to help people “in the here and now”.
“In relation to the Budget, yes, there will be a cost-of-living package this calendar year,” he added.
“I think it’s very important that there is one,” he added.
“While we can point to many indicators that show that inflation is very significantly reducing, it’s entirely true, it doesn’t take away from the fact that that hasn’t been felt yet at homes, businesses, farms, right across Ireland.
“Therefore, I do think it’s important that we look at a time when the country is doing economically well, and what more practical measures we can take to help people in the here and now.
“Obviously, the composition of the package, the size of it, and all of that will be a matter for engagement across government, and will be announced on Budget Day, on the first of October.”
Lump sum payments in the last two budgets have proved popular among householders, which included fuel allowances and double payments for child benefit. A double child benefit has already been indicated by Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys.
Please stop the Covid articles, we’ve had more than enough of them on all media outlets!
@Joan Featherstone: Then stop reading them. Nobody has a gun to your head to make you read any articles
@Kezz™: That’s very presumptuous of you
@Ed: fair point. Maybe that was some code for “help Tony Holohan has a gun to my head”!
@Kezz™: no need for childish comments, I don’t actually read them anymore, but I would fancy reading something else.
@Joan Featherstone: then do. You’ve literally complained about the existence of an article you probably read but definitely spent time commenting on. Then did the same re replies to your comment. If tis all too much for ya do yourself a favour, don’t reply to this.
Stop reading them so
@Joan Featherstone: Seriously though, Joan. You fancy reading something else so you ask a news website to stop reporting about the biggest disaster to happen to the world in quite a long time, that is ongoing and killing people?
@Joan Featherstone: So the Journal and other media outlets should ignore the most important issue of our time as you want something else to read. Just Google Happy News and there is loads of sites that push that.
@Joan Featherstone: i invite you to stop reading them if it upsets you.
@Joan Featherstone:
Snap out of it there Joan.
You’re on a news site/app.
Do you want to go to Met.ie and tell Met Eireann you’re sick of the weather, and to report on celebrity news?
Or The Farmer’s Journal? You could ask them to report on new developments in fashion?
Why not look up a few children’s stories on YouTube, and watch them if you want to be uninformed and cosseted at the same time?
@Joan Featherstone: Please stop sports stories as I don’t like sports and I get tired reading them all.
@Asio_Otus: brilliant reply
@Joan Featherstone: There’s loads of reading material out there. Some great books.
@Joan Featherstone: Will someone tell the National Lotto to stop please ‘cause I have never won and it makes me sad
I’m in one of the Level 4 counties and practically every shop in the town is still open as they have all found some item to sell that makes them “essential”
@jzT: kinda defeats the spirit of this altogether.
Like Holohan said,
The guidelines are not for people to find ways to evade. They are there to help with reduction in transmission.
@jzT: Fair play to them. Showing some ingenuity.
@jzT: businesses trying to stay afloat
@jzT: good
@Thunder Snowman: Showing ingenuity to keep the virus spreading Fair Play to them indeed
@jzT: Why can’t the wet pubs be creative like that?
@jzT: Ah ye ‘Sugar’is the way to go.
Can anyone not see what the media is at , driving histeria when we are not in lock down and then driving histeria when we’re not opened up , there is low mortality with high infection numbers , what are the ages of these deaths and had they co morbidities ,where is this information now , we all want to se all the information so that we can all buy in to lockdowns , there is yes way we should be locking down the country until such time as we have to pull the sledgehammer, ye are dreaming if ye think that after lockdown we are going to put a date on when we can open up , it won’t be till after Christmas , you will be told that it’s crazy to have people over for Christmas, make no mistake , we will have to live with this virus that means the vulnerable will have to look at different ways
@Paddy Dunne: to get through this pandemic
@Paddy Dunne: have a look on any OFFICIAL site and you can get all the stats you can stomach….. or you can read all the crap on social media
@Paddy Dunne: Absolutely. And how many deaths in ICU settings vs care homes or at home. This information is not published on Covid data hub. During the actual epidemic 95% of deaths were outside of ICU i.e. comorbidities were so severe ICU wasn’t afforded.
@Paul Connell: so what’s the answer Paul lockdown, and lockdown and lockdown and lockdown , what business could survive that one or two or three or four
@Paul Connell: Paul I’m talking about the media and the ordinary joe and Jane soap, listening to sensationalism on the airwaves
@Paul Connell: Sorry you can’t tell the difference with the deaths. The HSE have already said anybody who tested positive for Covid regardless of symptoms was included in the death count. The deaths that are happening now are the same. My Dad died in March, he had a very aggressive terminal cancer and contracted Covid four days before he died. Covid 19 is the cause of death on his death certificate. I was talking to a Man a few weeks ago and he was telling me his dad died last year of cancer. He said he contracted the flu while he was dying, however Cancer is the cause of death on his dad death certificate and he said he would never say his dad died of the flu. He would always say “My Dad died of Cancer”
@David Garland: sorry to hear if your loss Dave ,best of luck in the future for you and yours
@Toon Army: they were to weak to be put on ventilators
@Paddy Dunne: “they were too weak to be put on ventilators” – what a horrible thing to say! As if people’s lives don’t matter if they’re over a certain age or have underlying conditions. So the onus is on the vulnerable people to basically fend for themselves, while we, the rest of society get on with our lives as usual, cos we’re too damn comfortable to give up our pleasures and get used to restrictions, is it? If you look at the percentage of people with underlying conditions in Ireland, and / or who are overweight you’ll be surprised – it’ll be a good chunk of the population who you’ll leave to fend for themselves.
@Lotta Rossler: absolutely the vulnerable will have to be prioritised, where are you getting this fend for themselves lark ,I never once said that you should be enjoying yourself , social distancing wear a mask go to work keep the economy going keep your business going , defend the elderly plough money into helping the vulnerable, stay out of pubs pull the plug on everything bar basics , variation is the only way we are going to get through this , it’s very easy to go into lockdown when it doesn’t effect your livelihood, put everyone on 203 euro a week and you will hear a different tune , the private sector will be decimated, Melbourne has been in lockdown for over 3 months ,there is no telling when they would lift level 5 it would drag out until after Christmas we’ll into the new year
@Paddy Dunne: You do realise that 30% of the country come under the “Vulnerable” category.
@Lotta Rossler: Yes it is, the people that are most vulnerable should be locked up and kept away from the rest of the world. Except that will not work either as there has to be mixed contact unless they are left on their own in camps.
No medical care no food etc, oh wait non vulnerable people will look after them and because the non vulnerable people are mixing freely they will bring the virus into the vulnerable. All locked up in a perfect killing ground for the virus
@Gary Kearney:What happens if the govt run out of money if there is no vaccine and our cycle of lock,open,lock,open has burst the economy to no effect other than kick the can down the road. When there’s no money for pensions, health, social welfare.How long do you think Ireland can keep going to the well without paying it back. How many people will be permanently unemployed out of the tourism,hospitality and airline sectors with covid being used as an excuse not to give proper redundacy if at all. The genuine worries that people have about keeping a roof over their heads and feeding their families being batted aside under the guise of concern for public welfare which is horsesht and soundbytes because all it ever was is a cover for the botched job they have made of the public health system
These phases are pointless. No one in the country is under any one level. Everyone is on a some set of in between restrictions. So much for them providing clarity and a set plan.
Nice pamphlets though.
@Monster Munch: Totally agree. Should have gone for 20 or 30 levels!
@Monster Munch: There are 10 levels in the Government’s five-level plan.
Here comes the lockdown brigade in 3….. 2…..
@Kyle: good thing you don’t work for NASA, lol.
@Kyle: They say a Kyle is the male equivalent of a Karen.
@LangerDan: ah the fresh smell of coffee of a sunday. Nothing like a good old debate on the day of rest
@Kyle: There is a difference between wanting a lockdown and needing a lockdown. Nobody wants one but it’s needed.
@LangerDan: I wouldn’t like to say what the female version of Langer dan is now if I’m honest. It wouldn’t be very appropriate
@Michael Carolan: There’s also a difference in the necessity of a lockdown and a lockdown only until the start of xmas season instead of virus load.
@LangerDan: brilliant Hahaha
@Kyle: Fannielle
So a school like my sons with over 1000 students can remain open yet they won’t be allowed out with even one friend after school for leisure? Genius
@Liam: economically your son’s future is already affected. They are trying to reduce the effects of his future education.
Allowing wet pubs to stay open under Level 4 is a strange one.
@Hector Son: yeah but with the rain warnings and only allowed outdoors – it’s basically unworkable as a business – a bit like yes you can have a wedding with 6 people – hardly a wedding really is it ??
Classic Irish political fudge….ether do one or the other.
Our politicians are afraid of everything
@David cotter: Level 4.5 with +/-1% tolerance.
@David cotter: they’re absolute experts at half assed solutions to be fair. Not an ounce of leadership being shown, everyone just trying to cover themselves.
@David cotter:
‘Dial down on the catastrophizing’ says Economist Dan O’ Brien, just now, on RTE Radio 1’s Brendan O’ Connor Show.
Where’s me dictionary?
We need to start at Level 5 and give precise indicators what people in counties need to do to get to level 4/3/2/1. If they want it enough, they will do it. Mixed messaging has us going around like headless chickens.
@The Irish Bull: why not stay at level 3 and actually give the guards powers to fine people who break the guidelines. If people don’t follow the rules at level 3 because they aren’t punished they aren’t going to follow then at level 5
@Sam Harms: I drove from Carlow to Kerry and back yesterday and saw no guards. There is no real effort being made at Level 3 as far as I can see. People are just doing what they want and it will be the same at L4 and L5.
@The Irish Bull: Clear perspective would be needed indeed. If they hear that you will get x with that many infections per 100.000 they would have a clear communication.
I like the idea a lot but the thought about regional restrictions or giving the guards power to do something seems to be obscene for so many…
@Sam Harms: Not enough resourses to make it work properly. But i get your point. Tough times.
@Vanessa: Most of the problem is government advise. It’s as clear as mud. They come up with a 5 level plan, then cherry pick bits of them and nothing is clear. People for the most part were together on this until Golfgate. Once they seen the snobs behaving as they wanted, it gave them the right to do it themselves. Now thw whole thing is an absilute shambles and we will pay a heavy price as the year comes to an end.
@The Irish Bull: they wouldn’t necessarily need the resources to be in every street in every town. At the minute people know the guards have no power to do anything so they just do what they want but if they did have the power even the potential to be fined might stop some people from ignoring guidelines.
@David Corrigan: I Agree. I walked three km to the supermarket yesterday and it felt like a normal Saturday afternoon. This doesn’t feel like where under some sort of restrictions at all.
@Thomas: That’s true Thomas. It doesn’t feel like we have restrictions. It’s going to be impossible to manage things even at Level 5.
@The Irish Bull: Melbourne locked down for nearly four months
@The Irish Bull: but regardless of what precise indicators – there is no way we can get 100% of the people to comply – and so we end up with the usual 85% of people doing the right thing but getting punished with more restrictions when it doesn’t work – they were suppose to have a framework for living with covid – a 5 level plan – that could be targeted by country – within 3 days they invented half levels and then after swearing that county lockdowns work – here are telling us – no the county approach doesn’t work ( we knew ! ) – and Level 3 aint working ( we knew ) and NPHET who backed the plan originally instead just threw their toys out of the pram and pressed the panic button and said put everything onto level 5 and stop this county nonsense – do it nationally – so basically – we don’t have a 5 level plan , we don’t think county by county works – and NPHET never bought into this level thingy anyways – they are making a dogs dinner of ths – they have no clear strategy – they have no workable suggestions that live with covid keep the country running and manage our health system – and so they revert to lockdown lockdown lockdown – even thought WHO ( who they loved quoting at the beginning ) say they cause too much damage – what a farce
@The Irish Bull: agree – but also the reality that the only incovenience for all government workers / public sector / civil servants in a lockdown is to have to work from home on full pay – thats around 300 000 people – who dont need to worry about PUP , shuttering business , trying to meet payments – golfgate was only a symbol of us not being all in this together – the reality is more stark – the 400 000 on PUP and worrying about livlihoods and jobs are freaked out by Lockdown restrictions and the 300 000 that have no financial implications aren’t really bothered – i of course think frontline and emergency workers etc should not be affected – but the paper pushers and academics ( like the zero covid muppets ) are all on full pay regardless and this is the divisiveness and reality – we are not all in this together – ya can be damn sure they would take different decisions on 6 week lockdowns if they were only paid 2 days a week – they got away with it last time but the people are not going to easily tolerate them decimating smes and livelihoods while unaffected a second time around – well id like to think more will speak out about this – turkeys wont vote for xmas though ;-`0
What is it with this self limiting and misguided belief that all we should do is lockdown to great economic and livelihood costs. Wonderful short interview with Dr Jay Bhattacharya here on an alternative around focused protection for the vulnerable: https://youtu.be/ivVuUqLDqAk
@Toon Army: Ah yes the Barrington BS. Yeah sure so many holes put in that it is like a colinader at this stage
@Gary Kearney: He’s spot on and views soundly based on the data and science. Have yet to see a well founded rebuke.
Enforcement: isn’t that the real issue? We can escalate to level 4 or 5, but if the same mask-deniers continue with their gatherings and refusal to wear masks, or wear masks correctly, then what’s the benefit to increasing levels? Why not just insist on, and enforce mask-wearing, indoors and out, and leave the economy operate – even Level 3 saves jobs over Level 5?
Yes, wearing masks is massively frustrating but if it meant our economy didn’t go down the toilet, as a short term measure, surely it’d be worth it?
All ages wearing masks below their noses in shops, groups of younger people in shops with no masks or visors at all and left unchallenged, the protest gatherings, people who got away with staying in pubs for 5 hours, people having parties in their houses. Surely this is the issue?
@Helen Farrell: Masks should also be worn in the streets, some other European countries are insisting on this. They also fine for those not enforcing it.
Under level 4, I can gather with 15 strangers outdoors for training or arts events but can’t gather anywhere with my family?
Lisa hogan has just threw up an article (new record for covid cases with a 14 day high),,
She failed to mention . That there was a record level of covid tests 103,000, how May were carried out when this started , apart from the hypochondriacs that showed up for tests that weren’t even infected , hospital admissions and deaths is the only way to gauge lockdown variations
@Paddy Dunne: When you improve your grammar, punctuation and syntax I’ll pay you some heed.
If we go to level 5, we should just all get a flight to suney Spain and stay there for the next 6 weeks. Better than getting deprest in the doom and gloom of Ireland, out of work, no shop’s open, can’t get a beer, a meal, go to a show or a game, just sit at home and drink watching Netflix and hopefully the job will be there to go back to.
@Heisen berg1: Spain to be safe, you are having a laugh. Spain had over 12 thousand cases on Friday and 222 deaths. Real Safe.
@Gary Kearney: how about iceland. Population around 341,253
And yet ports and boarders will remain open
@Aisling Doyle: *borders.
And if we beat the boss we can get to level 6
Stop with these bloody middle grounds. Just commit to a level and leave it at that
@Jennie: Just commit to Level 5 for a couple of weeks and give us a hope of a decent Xmas! Stop with the BS
Please keep the gyms open.
Frankly, as we have seen with level 3, they can make it up as they go along since they are not exactly transparent.
I wonder what the state of the country will be in 2 years time -with Brexit on top of it- playing with people’s mind because the virus will still be there and the level of decision making as rubbish as now (and not just from the Government).
Will we all have to work for Amazon or a chain of Supermarket?
@Claude Saulnier: and who and how will we all keep paying high taxes to fund a large ( and very inefficient public sector ) keeping them all on full pay to paper shuffle , no end of quangoes , safety agencies , tourism agencies , media (rte have 2000 staff and pay half a million to some of them ?) civil servants , public works etc etc – theres also a thousands in sectors banking that we wouldn’t need as level of services plummet , i could go on -basically the point is all these were kept on FULL PAY in March for first lockdown as the hatchet came down heavily on all private sector – i honetly cannot see the country avoiding the reality that if they keep mis handling this like they are – it simply wont be sustainable or logical for the country to keep full pay for all these but expect the other half of the country to live on 203 PUP payments – so they NEED a plan – i suggest look to best practice in EU – France are curfew after 9pm – but can keep running during the day – maybe we need to think like this ??? so the health people wont need to worry about drunken fools flooding A and E during Covid but we wouldn’t need to shutter and lockdown all the healthy parts of society – all this while we focus on protecting and yes cocooning older and vulnerable – i know thats harsh but its reality – let youn ger less risky work and live to fund the protections of older – thats at least a roadmap until a vaccine – most other stuff is a yo yo that wont work as whenever we reopen – the virus spreads again
Mixing levels sounds like a real mess. Either psis or get off the pot !
These Garda checkpoints achieve nothing. I have been stopped a few times and I could have told them anything regarding my movements. They couldn’t wait to move me on as there was a long queue.
@Frank Kelly: Yes, I believe it’s a case of “Is your journey essential?”… “Yes Guard ” and you’re on your way again. They may as well not be there at the moment.
We are already in level 4.5 in Dublin.
Keep retail open no matter what. Everything else is wrecked anyway!
Was just getting back into my stride in the gym, back to pre lockdown weight and lifting decent numbers again. Sucks they will more than likely be closed again soon.
@cryptodon: I’m hoping against hope that they account for the fact that it’ll be winter soon and outdoor exercise is much more difficult. I don’t think there is evidence to show gyms are unsafe, they improve ones ability to battle the virus and they have significant mental health benefits. I really don’t like road running myself. Going from home to the gym and the odd trip to the supermarket- I shouldn’t be a danger to anyone.
@EnKy: dead right pal! And I’m not interested in hearing “ ah sure go for a walk or run” These people so ignorant they can’t differentiate between cardio and Strength training. Both forms of exercise are vital for healthy body and mind.
Enforcement and punishment of those who break the rules. People must learn not to be so selfish.
Thats what it comes down to, some people’s belief that what they want to do is more important than anything else.
I don’t like staying in and not meeting people. I know who does?
You do it for the safety of all.
I want, I want ,I want, so like a spoilt child and we have a lot of adults behaving the same way.
We are only as strong as our weakest link in the fight against Covid-19.
Are you one of the weak links?
There are plenty of you out there. I have not got the virus, are you sure?
When level 4 is over in December or granted a few days amnesty for Christmas, when January comes: people will finally realise there are no jobs to go back to and only those with assured paycheques every month will be able to keep a roof over their heads and provide for their families.
The ones with assured jobs & pay cheques will be fine for a couple of months until the state inevitably runs out of money to pay their wages.
Congratulations.
@Isabel Oliveira: The problem here is the lockdown will end just before Christmas. He selfish ones will immediately head for the pubs and other venues, get drunk, have parties. Hey presto, the virus will go up again.
This is so frustrating. I feel like a child that is being hidden from her parents divorcing or something. Tell us what the heck is going on instead of behind closed doors and more meetings and blah blah. Tell us what you’re saying tell us who’s saying what. Give us SOMETHING for goodness sakes
@Anna Carr: You’re asking the impossible from a bunch of spineless gombeens.
@Jerry Jeff Gomgat: I know, I know lol. But it’s so maddening, it’s like we’re too €tupid to understand lol
It doesn’t make a difference what the difference is its down to the individual and the choices they make.
I just hope they keep the gyms open. I think it falls under an essential service for many of us.
The whole country will be Level 5….
have your say