Government leaders have agreed an extra €200 cost of living bonus payment for pensioners, carers, the disabled and all long-term social welfare protection payments recipients.
This was described by senior Government sources as “another Christmas bonus” and it is expected to be agreed by the rest of the Cabinet at the sign-off meeting on Tuesday morning.
And every family in the country is in line for an immediate €100 bonus to help pay for the rising cost of rearing a child during the cost of living crisis, plus another €100 in August.
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The second payment is proposed to be paid in the form of an extra bonus similar to the clothing and footwear allowance payment available to parents every year.
It is understood that none of these were opposed by the Finance Minister, Michael McGrath, who holds the Government pursestrings, during crunch talks on Monday night.
The payments are expected to be ratified by ministers at Cabinet after Social Protection Minister, Heather Humphreys, secured agreement from Government leaders, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Green party leader, Eamon Ryan.
The total cost on social protection measures is over €400million.
In total, households are set to get up to another €1billion worth of cost of living cash supports under a new Government giveaway.
Motorists are expected to be saved a massive shock too after Fine Gael and Fianna resisted a move to bump back up excise duties on petrol and diesel immediately, preferring to increase it up by half in the summer and back to its full rate at the budget again.
There may still be a drawback in tax of 5c a litre agreed today as the Green party’s ministers will still push for a move on this.
If the Government chooses to end the excise reductions in one fell swoop it would see the price of a litre of petrol go back up by 20c and a litre of diesel by 15c.
It would add about another €10 to the cost of filling a tank of an average car.
But Ministers are looking at phasing back in the end of the discounts to ease the pain.
There is predicted to be good news for the hospitality sector too after ministers agreed it would be a good idea to retain the 9% reduced VAT rate for the industry for another six months to get them through the bulk of the tourism season.
The hospitality and tourism industry has lobbied hard for the deal to be kept up, but the tax concession from 13.5% to 9% has been costing the Exchequer half a billion euro a year - and the Government was keen to get this money back in the coffers.
Finance Minister Michael McGrath as much last week signalled this when he told a private meeting of Fianna Fáil politicians that this bundle of cash would be “better focused on supports for households.”
But all the indications last night were that Mr McGrath had rowed back on this.
An extra energy credit in the region of €200 after the third one is paid next month is still up in the air, and if it is agreed it could be paid next autumn, not over the summer.
Government Ministers were thin on the ground on Monday, with Darragh O’Brien the only Cabinet member appearing publicly.
Minister O’Brien indicated the package will still be “significant” and targeted.”
He said: “They will be very targeted, what we will announce this week will be significant.”
The top brass of Government is meeting tonight to hammer out the final details of the latest plan which will see some schemes extended into the spring/summer and others dropped.
Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste, Michael Martin, and Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr McGrath and Paschal Donohoe, along with Social Protection Minister, Heather Humphreys, were all meeting in Government Buildings to thrash out what is in and what is out of the spending plan.
It has been acknowledged by the Government that there will be no ‘cliff edge’ sudden end to supports when most of them run out at the end of this month.
But there is also the challenge for the Government to start weaning the public off the supports because they can’t go on forever.
However, most household budgets in the country are still being crippled by soaring bills and costs as the cost of living crisis shows no sign of letting up.
So the political pressure is on there for them to help.
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