'It means a loss of €200 every month’

A YOUNG couple who are trying to save for a deposit on a house have been hit with a further blow by the imposition of another e200 in levies every month by this week’s budget.

Hugh Cronin and Eileen Canavan are both 25 and have been in permanent jobs as primary school teachers for just more than three years. But their combined take-home pay has fallen by almost e500 a month to about e4,200 since last October’s budget, with the 1% income levy in place since January and the public service pension levy which took effect in March.

The couple live in Carrignavar in Co Cork with their four-year-old son Luke, who is in junior infants at Scoil an Chroí Ró Naofa in Blarney where Hugh also teaches, and their second child is due in early June. “We are renting a house which costs just over e1,000 a month, but we’re trying to save for a deposit at the same time. We’ve been to all the banks and nobody is offering more than 90% loans so we need to put together around e25,000 to e35,000,” said Hugh.