Finance Minister Simon Harris and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers presented Budget 2027 to the Dáil on 6 October 2026. It is Mr Harris's first Budget as Finance Minister, and the Irish Times noted that it is the first in a decade without Paschal Donohoe in the process. The package was set in July at €8.5 billion, and RTÉ reported that the final tax element came in about €150 million higher than expected, taking the total to roughly €8.65 billion.

The shape is a familiar one. Most of the new money goes to income tax cuts, a €10 weekly rise in payments, childcare and housing, with extra help on energy because of price shocks linked to the war in Iran. The most novel measure is not a tax cut at all. It is a new type of investment account, which is why we begin there.

From 1 July 2027, adults will be able to open a Personal Investment Account. RTÉ reported that up to €12,000 a year can go in, with no minimum, and that the first €50,000 held in the account is tax free. Above €50,000, the Irish Examiner reported, a flat 1% a year is charged on the value held, regardless of whether the investments made a profit or a loss.

Inside the account there is no capital gains tax, dividend withholding tax, investment undertaking tax or life assurance tax, and the eight-year deemed disposal rule does not apply, according to the Irish Examiner. Mr Harris said that there will be no need to engage with Revenue in the normal running of the account because the provider handles it.

The Irish Times reported that anyone over 18 who is resident in Ireland and has a PPS number can open one account, and cannot hold more than one. Eligible assets, per RTÉ, are listed shares, listed bonds, instruments on regulated markets and retail investment funds. Derivatives and crypto assets are not allowed. There is no lock-in, and savers can switch provider without a tax charge.

Mr Harris argued that the limits make a charge unlikely for years. RTÉ quoted him saying it is "extremely unlikely that any tax will be due in the first few years". The arithmetic supports that. Putting in the maximum €12,000 a year would take more than four years, with no growth at all, to reach €50,000. With growth, a long-term saver could reach the threshold sooner, but still not in the first few years.

The criticism is about design. The Irish Times reported industry concern that taxing the value held, not the profit, means a charge can arise in a year when markets fall, and that the €12,000 annual cap is low. It described the structure as modelled on Sweden's system rather than the UK's ISA. Grant Thornton Ireland, quoted by the Irish Examiner, called it one of the most significant reforms to personal investment policy in decades, and said Irish households are among the strongest savers in Europe but keep much of it in deposits.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission launched a financial-literacy tool on investment readiness on Budget day, according to the Irish Examiner. Savers who want a guarantee will still have State savings products, which RTÉ said stay backed 100% by the State.

Beyond the new account, the Irish Times main-points summary reports two cuts: the standard rate of capital gains tax falls by two points to 31%, and the exit tax on many funds and life assurance products falls by three points to 35%. Before the Budget, the exit tax was 38%, as TheJournal.ie noted in September.

Deemed disposal is the rule that taxes unrealised gains on many ETFs every eight years, which TheJournal.ie described as unpopular and unusual among developed countries. It was not scrapped. Mr Harris's statement says the rule does not apply inside the new account, and that work continues on the wider regime, including the tax rate, deemed disposal and the administrative burden. Funds held outside the account still face it, and the exit tax on them falls from 38% to 35% from 1 January 2027.

RTÉ and the Irish Times reported a €1.3 billion income tax package. The 40% rate now begins at €46,500 for a single person, up from €44,000, with proportionate increases for married couples and civil partners. The personal, employee (PAYE) and earned income credits each rise by €125, and the RTÉ report put each at €2,125. The home carer credit rises by €100. The ceiling of the 2% band of the Universal Social Charge rises by €1,600 to €30,300, so a full-time minimum-wage worker stays out of the 3% band.

The Irish Times and RTÉ said a single person on €50,000 gains about €750 and a couple with €100,000 between them about €1,500. Our own arithmetic matches the shape: moving €2,500 from the 40% to the 20% rate is worth up to €500, and a PAYE worker also gets two €125 credit rises. Someone earning below the old €44,000 threshold gets no benefit from the band shift, only from the credits, which is consistent with Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty arguing that most earners under €40,000 gain closer to €250 than €750, as the Irish Times reported.

For employers, RTÉ reported the weekly threshold for the higher rate of employer PRSI rises from €552 to €600, saving €650 to €700 a year per employee below it. The minimum wage rises 79 cent from €14.15 to €14.94, according to the Irish Times. The Irish Times also reported that the childcare services relief, for people minding children at home, rises by €5,000 to €20,000.

TheJournal.ie reported that the maximum weekly contributory State pension rises from €299.30 to €309.30 and the non-contributory pension from €288 to €298. Jobseeker's Allowance, disability allowance and the one-parent family payment each rise from €254 to €264. The Irish Times said the €10 rise reaches about 1.6 million people. The Christmas bonus is confirmed again.

The child support payment rises by €6 a week and the living alone allowance by €3 to €25 a week. The fuel allowance rises by €5 to €43 a week, which TheJournal.ie said covers about 460,000 households. Child Benefit stays at €140 a month. The Irish Times reported that the carer's allowance income disregard rises by €150 for a single person and €300 for a couple, and that Working Family Payment thresholds rise by €30.

A new €500 cost-of-disability payment goes to almost 240,000 people on long-term disability payments, according to Mr Chambers. The Government's Budget guide describes it as a lump sum in 2027 for about 238,000 people, followed by a co-design process with disabled people to develop a permanent payment from 2028.

RTÉ reported that the maximum monthly fee for children up to senior infants falls from €735 to €550 from September 2027. It put the saving at €2,220 a year for a full place at the old maximum. The Irish Times gave a smaller figure of up to €1,000 a child through the National Childcare Scheme subsidy, so what you save depends on what you pay now and how many hours you use.

For students, the Irish Times reported a permanent €150 cut to third-level fees, a 4.5% rise in SUSI maintenance grants from January and more than 1,420 additional places in health and social care courses. The Irish Examiner reported that free contraception is extended from age 35 to 37.

The Irish Examiner reported that Help to Buy rises by €5,000 to a maximum of €35,000, and that Fianna Fáil's call to scrap stamp duty on second-hand homes was left out, with Mr Harris saying he had not changed his view. The Irish Times reported that the property price limit for Help to Buy stays at €500,000.

Renters get a bigger tax credit: up €150 to €1,150 for a single renter and €2,300 for a couple, per the Irish Times (an early report said €1,200, which was not confirmed). Rent-a-room relief rises to €16,000 and is extended to some detached units, and TheJournal.ie reported that a new Derelict Property Tax of 7% takes effect in September 2027. Inheritance tax thresholds rise: the parent-to-child threshold goes up €20,000 to €420,000, according to the Irish Times.

On supply, the Irish Times reported funding of about €3 billion for new-build social housing, with 11,250 homes planned, and, per the Government's Budget guide, over €1 billion for the Starter Homes programme to deliver 8,500 homes.

Mr Harris said carbon tax on home heating oil and gas is being cut and will not increase again in the lifetime of this Government. RTÉ reported that the rate on kerosene and natural gas had been due to climb to €78.50 a tonne by May 2027, and will now fall from €63.50 to €48.50. The scheduled 2027 increases on petrol, diesel and solid fuels are not part of that cut, RTÉ reported.

The Irish Times reported that the return of full excise on petrol and diesel, due in November, is delayed to 28 February 2027 and then phased back over four steps until 30 June 2027. RTÉ reported the energy retrofit budget at €654.5 million through SEAI. Sinn Féin said these supports fall short and called for an energy credit.

Tobacco and vaping carry the offsetting rises. A pack of 20 cigarettes goes up €1 in excise, and a new 20 cent per ml vape tax means about 40 cent more on a single-use disposable, according to the Irish Times.

The Irish Times reported that the Department of Health gets about €1.6 billion more, including GP out-of-hours reform and 1.8 million additional home support hours, and the Irish Examiner reported that mental health funding rises by €108 million to €1.657 billion, funding six new Solace crisis cafés.

On education, the Irish Times reported 2,339 additional special needs assistants and 1,353 additional teachers, 100 more home-school liaison posts and extra DEIS funding. Capital spending totals €20.3 billion, including a further €6 billion for MetroLink over 2027 to 2030, and €2.3 billion for Uisce Éireann, according to the Irish Times.

Business and farm measures include a €1 billion scaling programme for large next-generation companies, a €15 million support scheme for rural pubs, a doubling of the farm succession tax credit from €5,000 to €10,000 and a VAT cut on livestock vaccines from 23% to 9%, as reported by the Irish Times. Other measures include an extension of electric vehicle VRT relief to the end of 2028 and a one-point rise in VRT for pollutant cars.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said before the Budget that the economy is performing strongly and does not need support, that the planned package was larger than appropriate and that spending overruns have averaged more than €2 billion a year over a decade. The ESRI said using windfall revenue to fund recurring spending is at odds with prudent management and projected an underlying deficit of €20 billion by 2030, as the Irish Times reported.

RTÉ reported that spending this year is growing by 7.8% against a 7% promise, an overrun of about €1.5 billion, and that the Central Bank estimates Ireland would have a €7 billion deficit without windfall corporation tax. The Irish Times reported projected surpluses of €6.7 billion this year and €9.5 billion next year, and a further €1 billion for the Future Ireland Fund.

In short, the Government has chosen to hand back some of a corporation tax windfall while critics warn that it should save more. Both can be true: the money is real, and so is the risk that it disappears.

The Budget came amid a tense negotiation. The Irish Examiner reported that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael disagreed over stamp duty and settled on a larger Help to Buy as a compromise, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin had warned that the Budget would not do everything for everybody.

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty called the Government detached from workers' lives, and Mary Lou McDonald described it as the 96th Budget from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, according to the Irish Times. Labour and the Social Democrats had wanted energy credits of about €400 and larger welfare rises, which are not in the package.

Almost everything here becomes law through the Finance Bill and the Social Welfare Bill, debated over the coming weeks. The investment account in particular needs primary legislation, and its operating details, such as which providers will be ready on 1 July 2027, are still to come. We will update this article as the bills are published and as the Department of Finance releases its detailed tax notes.

Open questions we are watching: what the permanent disability payment from 2028 will look like, how the 1% charge is calculated in practice, whether deemed disposal reform arrives in Budget 2028, and how far spending overruns carry into next year.