Tánaiste signals boost to workers' take-home pay in Budget 2027

Simon Harris dials up expectations, contrary to public expenditure minister Jack Chambers' recent remark that workers would get 'a few hundred euro' in the budget

Tánaiste Simon Harris with fellow members of Fine Gael's parliamentary party during their think-in at Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, Co Wexford. Picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA

Tánaiste Simon Harris has once again dialled up expectations of a "significant" boost in worker's take home pay through tax changes in the upcoming budget.

His comments run contrary to public expenditure minister Jack Chambers who has suggested that the squeezed middle will only receive 'a few hundred euro' from a 'modest' tax package.

Asked about this, Mr Harris insisted that many people will receive more than the €200 outlined by the Fianna Fáil minister, stating: "I think for many middle-income workers it will be more than that."

With the budget now less than four weeks away, a number of differences have emerged between the two main parties in Government, including around stamp duty, carbon tax and the level of income tax cuts.

At the Fine Gael think-in in Wexford, Mr Harris said: 

I believe we can make a significant impact cumulatively on the life of a middle-income earner. 

"I'm very happy to discuss it in detail after we reveal the package, and I think for many middle-income workers it will be more than that."

The Fine Gael leader said his party did not campaign on the issue of USC during the last general election, and his focus is instead on altering tax bands and moving on tax credits.

Describing capital gains tax as 'objectively too high', he said it is something that is now being considered in the context of the budget.

Addressing, Mr Chambers' comments, Mr Harris said: "He may have used that phrase 'couple of hundred', I don't think he used that in a literal sense.

"There are people in this country who are playing by the rules, who are working hard, who on paper are earning decent salaries, but still at the end of the week, at the end of the month, they're going, 'is that it?' And we've got to give voice to those people in the Dáil."

But he added that the budget will also set out a "roadmap" on income tax adjustments in the coming years as "one budget can't move, nor should it move massively on any one issue".

Cost of childcare 

Mr Harris said that working families will be helped through a number of supports, including measures to bring down the cost of childcare, and not solely adjustments to tax bands and credits.

The Tánaiste all but ruled out a cut to the USC, which Sinn Féin has called for, but suggested that capital gains tax may be reduced as part of the Budget.

Mr Harris also signalled that the Government is looking at measures that will address fuel costs on a longer-term basis.

While he warned that the coalition cannot chase inflation, he said the job of Government is "to control what we can control, to do what we can do to try and assist people. And there are levers that we can pull that can make a difference".

"This is challenging, it's really challenging. You lock it in too far in advance, who knows where oil prices will be. 

"But what we're all trying to do, and we had a very good meeting across government on this yesterday, is to see on the issue of energy, can we make a move in the budget that provides some degree of clarity and certainty."

• Elaine Loughlin, Political Editor