McCreevy expected to give health £315m boost

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy is expected to boost the coffers of the Health Dept with an extra £315m in tomorrow's budget.

The minister is expected to fall back on cigarettes, drink and petrol to avoid having to borrow heavily next year.

But he is expected to increase child benefit payments by up to £25 per month and pensioners are expected to see an increase of about £6 per week.

Cigarettes will go up, but not by the 79p increase speculated during the week - it is more likely to be about half this figure.

Officials tonight signalled that Mr McCreevy will not cut the top tax rate of 42% nor change the standard rate of 20%.

These rates had been cut from 48% and 26% respectively over the last four years.