Ifac: Budget to allow for paltry income tax cuts

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has only €600m in additional tax cuts and spending increases - which may, at best, only allow him €300m in income tax cuts, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) has said, in its first major report ahead of October’s budget.

In the report, the watchdog reprimands budget decisions in the past that ramped up spending funded from uncertain corporation tax bounties and says that if the Government were to follow the recommendations of Ifac and that of its own advisers, the finance minister should only announce “minimal new tax and spending measures on budget day”.