The Government is cutting the VAT rate on herbal tea as part of measures included in the Finance Bill.

THE song should never have been a hit anywhere because its title was weird: ‘Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah’. (Translation: ‘Hello Mother, Hello Father’.) It should certainly never have been a hit in Ireland because the entire song was about something we didn’t have back in the 1960s: Summer camps.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton has said the scrapping of the "

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For a tax that was introduced as a temporary measure, the USC has become a budgetary fixture that shows little sign of disappearing.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar’s budget plan "doesn’t add up" and risks a series of promised reforms not happening next year, a leading economist has warned.

The homeless crisis is going to get worse despite a €10m budget allocation, while projects working with drug users had their funding "chiselled away" during the consecutive austerity budgets.

Budget 2015 was regressive as it further widened the gap between the rich and the less well off, writes Seán Healy.

People on low incomes are paying for tax cuts enjoyed by the better-off, opposition parties have warned.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has welcomed a €1m increase in its budget for next year.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has denied the budget amounts to a string of pre-election "smart-alecky tricks".

Social Justice Ireland (SJI) has described the budget as one of missed opportunities which will cause the income gap to widen between rich and poor.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that income taxes will be further reduced in next year's Budget.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has admitted too many people are still struggling in Ireland as he declared the country was emerging from a torrid seven years of recession.

The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has laughed off suggestions that hiking the price of a packet of cigarettes to €10 amounts to a "Nidge tax".

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is defending the tax cuts in yesterday's Budget.

The Health Minister Leo Varadkar has rejected criticism from doctors over his funding allocation in Budget 2015.

The Jobs Minister claims Ireland can be a "magnet" for companies, despite the abolition of the "double Irish".

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation have said Budget 2015 means "no more cuts, but the health service remains in a critical situation".

Michael Noonan has hinted that the Universal Social Charge might never be abolished.

The Government has announced an end to the long-running moratorium on recruitment in the public sector with posts to be created in the civil service next year.

Twitter users took to the platform not only to make fun of public officials, but also to express relief at tax cuts, ire at the reintroduction of Christmas bonuses for those on social welfare, and to ask what a Knowledge Development Box was.

The Home Renovation Incentive scheme is to be extended to landlords in order to improve the quality of rented housing stock, said Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

THE Big Chill is over but a distinct frost remains in the air. Robert Frost to be precise as Michael Noonan quoted the poet’s most famous work The Road Not Taken as his narrative guide when the Government declared austerity to be at an end.

Britain has received £148m (€186m) in interest payments from Ireland following a crisis loan in 2010.

Child Benefit is to increase by €5 per child from next January with a promise of an identical rise in 2016 so long as the economic recovery continues.

An €88m investment will see 1,700 more teachers and special needs assistants employed in schools next year as the Government tries to keep pace with record pupil increases.

Michael Noonan announced a 40c increase in the price of an old reliable — at the same time 260km away, a muffled groan went up in the Old Reliable.

The tourism industry has broadly welcomed the retention of the 9% Vat rate for the sector — but has been warned to pass on savings to customers.

Sinn Féin has argued that the tax cuts announced in the budget are "pathetically inadequate" in comparison to the crippling water charges that struggling families now have to face.

Some of the country’s most vulnerable households will miss out on help with their water charges despite a range of payment concessions announced which include tax breaks for the wealthiest earners.

Opposition politicians and campaign groups have described the water charges subsidies and tax relief as outlined in yesterday’s budget as the response of a panicked government to recent protests.

A new initiative to help parents on welfare get back to work will make it more financially worthwhile to take up employment by letting them keep some state supports.

The Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht has been given an additional €4m to roll out an "integrated plan" to commemorate 1916.

After years in the wilderness Naas, Co Kildare, could almost be said to be on a roll - so long as the small businesses can hold on, writes Caroline O'Doherty.

Eligibility criteria for the new Irish film tax credit scheme which is due to start next year may be extended in 2016, Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced yesterday.

Some 180 recruits are about to be taken into the Army just as the overall funding for Department of Defence will be cut by €1m, next year.

The abolition of the "double Irish" is a highlight of the 10-year tenure of European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, who said he would put it in his legacy speech. He is due to leave office in two weeks’ time.

Three businessmen give their views on Budget 2015.

While most people will breath a sigh of relief that Budget 2015 gave back more than it took away, one man who may be more disappointed than most is Prof John McHale of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

Health Minister, Leo Varadkar has delivered on a government promise made three years ago to extend BreastCheck screening to women aged 65 to 69 next year.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has claimed the "cycle of cuts in health" is over after the first budget rise for the sector since the dying days of the Celtic Tiger.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton may not have got to play Santa Claus yesterday but she did manage a role as one of his elves by restoring a small portion of the long-lamented Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients.

Reductions in Universal Social Charge rates and changes in the levels at which workers begin paying them will see pay packets increased.

The next three budgets will deliver an easing of crippling taxes on the "squeezed middle", according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who heralded the beginning of the end of austerity with a €1bn budget spree.