Cuts to USC set for budget

Fianna Fáil is now confident of securing further cuts to the universal social charge (USC) and an extension to the Mortgage Interest Relief scheme in next month’s budget.

It comes as budget tensions mount between Finance Minster Paschal Donohoe and the HSE over hospitals claiming that they cannot afford the latest public pay deal and have overspent.

Mr Donohoe told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that every other department had “absorbed” costs for the pay deal and that the health services had more money than ever.