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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

"A win for the craft brewing industry but not the slam-dunk we would have liked."

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.

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.

Aid agencies have questioned the Government’s commitment to contributing 0.7% of gross national income towards overseas aid after yesterday’s budget showed no increase in funding for overseas development assistance.

A €2.2bn public housing investment in the next three years should lead to the building of 10,000 homes, the Government has said.

Focus Ireland has welcomed the €2.2bn social housing investment over the next three years, but warned that a clear and urgent short-term response was needed to stem the homeless and housing crisis.

The Construction Industry Federation has warned that the low level of housing supply will continue because of the lack of measures to address the issue in yesterday’s budget.

Two hundred promised Garda recruits will start training as early as December in a bid to reverse a continuing reduction in Garda numbers.

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.

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.

Moves to regenerate housing stock more than a century old in Ireland’s main cities are at an advanced stage, Finance Minister Michael Noonan insisted yesterday.

Deposit Interest Retention Tax (Dirt) will be refunded for first-time buyers in a bid to stoke the housing market.

The Government will phase out the "double Irish" tax loophole over the next five years for companies based in Ireland and from January for new firms.

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 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.

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.

Three businessmen give their views on Budget 2015.

Increased income tax exemption thresholds; extended tax reliefs; and the removal of the lower age threshold of 40 for leasing relief are some of the measures aimed at making additional land available to young and active farmers following the Government’s agri-taxation review.

The Irish Farmers’ Association gave the thumbs up to budget measures aimed at encouraging land leasing, but opposition parties and lobby groups claim the Government had failed rural communities.

The reduction in the controversial pension levy which has siphoned more than €2bn from private sector pensions in the past four years was universally welcomed yesterday.

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

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.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said yesterday that his department would make provision for €185m in development and seed capital in the coming year to provide support for critical firms.

Budget provision for forestry, horticulture, and greyhound sectors

Real reform on capital gains tax for entrepreneurs in next October’s budget needs to be one of the follow-on policies from yesterday’s package of programmes, which were broadly viewed as being friendly to the small business community.