On Tuesday 12 October 2021 the Government presented the 2022 budget.
The following is a summary of the social, justice and housing measures announced in the budget. Some measures may take immediate effect whereas others will not take effect until January 2022 and yet others require finalising before they will come into effect.
The full Budget Report can be accessed here.
Social Welfare
The maximum rate of all weekly social welfare payments will increase by €5 with proportional increases for qualified adults and people on reduced rates of payment; effective from January 2022.
People aged 25 and under who are getting a reduced rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance will get the full €5 increase; effective from January 2022. The weekly rate for a qualified child will increase by €2 from €38 to €40 for children under 12 years of age. It will increase by €3 from €45 to €48 for children aged 12 years and over; effective from January 2022.
A Christmas Bonus of 100% will be paid in early December 2021 to people getting a long-term social welfare payment subject to a minimum payment of €20.
The Fuel Allowance will increase by €5 from €28 to €33 per week from 13 October 2022.
The income threshold for Fuel Allowance will increase by €20 from €100 to €120; effective from January 2022.
People who have been getting Jobseekers Allowance or Supplementary Welfare Allowance for 12 months will qualify for Fuel Allowance – this is a reduction of 3 months - from 15 months; effective from September 2022.
The Living Alone Increase will increase by €3 from €19 to €22; effective from January 2022.
The Working Family Payment threshold will increase by €10 across all family sizes; effective from June 2022.
Parent’s Benefit will be extended by 2 weeks from 5 weeks to 7 weeks for the parents of children born or adopted from November 2019; effective July 2022.
The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BTSCFA) for a child aged 4-11 will increase by €10 from €150 to €160. For children aged 12 and over, it will also increase by €10 from €275 to €285.
The weekly income limit for one-parent households will be increased to the same as two-parent households; effective from June 2022.
The minimum paid PRSI contributions required to qualify for Treatment Benefit will decrease from 5 years (260 weeks) to 9 months (39 weeks) for people aged between 25 and 28; effective from June 2022.
A grant of 50% (up to €500) towards the cost of wigs, hairpieces or hair replacement systems due to illness will be introduced under the Treatment Benefit scheme; effective from June 2022.
The income disregard for Carer's Allowance will increase from €332.50 to €350 for a single person and from €665 to €750 for a couple. The capital disregard will increase by €30,000 from €20,000 to €50,000; effective from June 2022.
The period during which Carer’s Allowance and Domiciliary Care Allowance can be paid for children in hospital will be extended from 3 months to 6 months; effective from January 2022.
The earnings limit on Disability Allowance will increase by €25 from €350 to €375 and the weekly means disregard will increase from €2.50 to €7.60; effective from June 2022.
PhD scholarships will be disregarded in the means test for Blind Pension; effective from January 2022.
Health
The Department of Health has been allocated €22.2 billion.
€500 million will be available for testing and tracing, the delivery of booster vaccines and for personal protective equipment across the health service.
The Drugs Payment Scheme threshold will be reduced to €100 from €114 per month.
Increased access to dental treatment for medical cardholders will be introduced.
Free GP care for 6 and 7-year-olds will be introduced.
A women’s health package of €31 million will:
7,000 new posts will be added across the health system.
€24 million will be used to develop mental health services and €250 million will be available to tackle hospital waiting lists.
€8m will go towards building the capacity of the National Ambulance Service.
Disability services
€105 million has been allocated to disability services, including supports for:
Education and Training
Primary and post-primary schools
The Department of Education allocation is €9.2 billion in 2022.
The School Transport Scheme will get an additional €30 million investment.
An additional 350 teachers will reduce the pupil/teacher ratio in primary schools by one point to 24:1
980 new teachers will be recruited to support children with special needs and 1165 new Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) will be recruited.
Funding of €18 million will be used to increase the number of schools in the DEIS schools programme.
Schools will be provided with books, audiobooks, and other media through once-off funding of €20 million.
The Hot School Meals Pilot Programme will be extended to the remaining DEIS primary schools that applied to join the scheme; effective from January 2022.
Higher education, further education and skills
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science allocation is €3.7 billion in 2022.
3320 new CAO places will be created.
The current Post Leaving Certificate course contribution fee of €200 will be abolished.
The Student Maintenance Grant will increase by €200 in 2022. The cut-off threshold for eligibility for the student grant will increase by €1000. The travel distance for the ‘non-adjacent' rate will decrease to 30 km from 45 km.
Additional support for apprenticeships includes:
€3 million will be provided to support lifelong learning and literacy, digital and numeracy skills for adults.
Childcare and Parenting
Funding for childcare will total €716 million in 2022.
The Universal Subsidy under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) will be extended to children up to 15 from September 2022.
A new funding stream for early years and childcare providers will be in place from September 2022.
Hours spent in pre-school or school will no longer be deducted from hours subsidised by the National Childcare Scheme.
Parent’s leave and Parent’s Benefit will be extended by 2 weeks to 7 weeks from July 2022.
Housing
€6 billion is allocated to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in 2022.
Help to Buy
The Help to Buy Incentive Scheme is extended to the end of 2022. The Scheme will have a full review in 2022.
Social and affordable housing
Capital funding of €2.5 billion has been allocated for social and affordable housing in 2022, including 9,000 new-build social housing units, and over 4,000 affordable homes. These homes include affordable purchase and cost rental to be delivered through various funding channels including the Land Development Agency and the First Home scheme.
Funding for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is increased by €168 million in 2022 to provide for 14,000 new HAP tenancies (bringing the total number of tenancies supported to 66,000).
Funding of €133 million for the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) will support a further 800 households in 2022, along with the ongoing cost of supporting 17,000 households already in the scheme.
Funding of €18 million is allocated in 2022 for the delivery of Traveller accommodation.
Supports for homeless people
Funding of €194 million has been made available for homeless services in 2022. This will support local authorities providing emergency accommodation and other services and help people to exit homelessness to tenancies as quickly as possible. Additional health supports have been allocated to assist with this.
Regeneration, adaptations and remediation
In 2022, €50 million is allocated to start the Croí Cónaithe fund to help service sites and refurbish properties in towns and villages, and to increase owner occupier apartment development in city centres.
€65 million is provided for 11,000 grants to adapt the homes of older people and people with a disability.
Funding of €20 million is provided to support the remediation of homes affected by pyrite under the Pyrite Remediation Scheme in 2022. In addition, funding for the remediation of homes affected by defective concrete blocks has been increased to €40m.
Funding of €30 million will support the remediation of over 1,500 voids (vacant dwellings in need of repair) in 2022.
Zoned Land Tax
A new Zoned Land Tax of 3% tax is being introduced to encourage the use of land that is zoned residential and mixed-use to build homes. The tax will apply to land which is zoned suitable for residential development and is serviced, but has not been developed for housing. A lead-in time for the general application of the Zoned Land Tax of 2 years is proposed for land zoned before January 2022, and a 3 year lead-in time for land zoned after January 2022. The Zoned Land Tax will replace the vacant sites levy when it comes into operation.
Pre-letting expenses
The deduction of certain pre-letting expenses incurred on vacant residential premises against rental income before first letting after a period of non-occupancy is extended to the end of 2024.
Justice
The Department of Justice will get €3.2 billion in funding for 2021.
This includes funding for:
Direct provision
Funding has also been provided to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to continue its implementation of the planned International Protection Support System.
Rural and community development
A total €376 million is allocated to the Department of Rural and Community Development. This includes funding for: