Budget 2012 – Public Expenditure Measures

5th December 2011

Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform, Brendan Howlin addressed the Dail today in relation to the expenditure budget for 2012.

The main points are as follows:

• Target deficit of 8.6% of GDP in 2012
• Public service pay bill to fall by €400m in 2012, with a 12% staff reduction
• No reduction in weekly rates of social welfare payments
• Basic child allowance rate to be maintained. Over the next two years however, they will standardise the rate payable per child, by reducing the allowance for additional children.
• Fuel allowance period to be reduced from 32 to 26 weeks.
• Employer’s redundancy rebate to be decreased by 60% to 15%
• Increase in the monthly threshold under the Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) from €120 to €132
• Increase in €250 of the student contribution to third level fees
• Job seeker benefit to be assessed on a 5 day week were recepient is a part-time worker (currently based on 6 day week)

Budget 2012 continues with Minister Michael Noonan’s speech tomorrow at 3pm.

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