2019 Irish budget

The 2019 Irish budget was the Irish Government budget for the 2019 fiscal year was presented to Dáil Éireann on 9 October 2018 by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, his second as Minister for Finance.^[1][2]

2019 Irish budget

Presented	9 October 2018
Parliament	32nd Dáil
Government	31st government of Ireland
Party	Fine Gael
Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform	Paschal Donohoe
Website	Budget 2019
‹ 2018 2020›

Summary

^[3][4]

• The cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes to go up by €0.50, to bring the total cost of a pack to €12.70.
• Duties on alcohol go unchanged.
• No changes in the price of diesel or petrol.
• The VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality sector increases from 9% to 13.5%.
• Social Welfare payments to rise by €5.
• Christmas bonus to Social Welfare recipients to be restored to 100%.
• Government to commit €1.25 billion for the delivery of 10,000 new social homes in 2019.
• The Garda budget will rise by €60 million while the defense sector is to benefit from an extra €29 million.
• The minimum wage is to be increased to €9.80 per hour.