Temporary tax cuts introduced during the cost of living crisis will be phased out throughout the remainder of the year, the Taoiseach has said.
Leo Varadkar also dampened hopes within the hospitality sector that the VAT rate for the sector would not increase from 9 to 13.5%.
It is due to revert to 13.5% at the end of the month. Other temporary measures such as cuts to excise on petrol and diesel would also need to be phased out, and that the Cabinet will set out the plan for this after its meeting next Tuesday.
However, he pledged a package of support for families, workers, businesses and vulnerable groups but moved to play down expectations by saying it will not be a mini-budget.
“The package has not been finalised yet and won’t be finalised until it is approved by Cabinet on Tuesday. Suffice to say that inflation is now slowing down, but the cost of living remains very high and is still getting higher and that is putting a lot of people, families and businesses under pressure, and we want to help.
“The package will be all about helping businesses with their energy costs, helping families who are really struggling with the cost of living and also helping the people most vulnerable in our society, those with fixed incomes, pensioners, people on social welfare who will need a little bit of extra help.
“But I also need to be frank with people as well, this is not going to be a budget or a mini-budget.
“The €11 billion that we deployed in the last budget, that is only a few months ago, those measures are still being rolled out, and the temporary tax cuts that were put in place, they are temporary, and they will need to be phased out over the course of the year, and we will be setting out how that will be done.”
