Budget 2024: Workers, renters and mortgage holders to benefit ...

Finance Minister Michael McGrath will unveil a more than €1bn tax package which will see the entry point for the 40pc top rate of income tax increased by €2,000 to €42,000.

Mr McGrath will also announce that the 4.5pc USC rate will be cut to 4pc while PAYE tax credits and other related credits will be increased by €100.

The tax cuts means a worker earning €50,000 a year will have an extra €800 in their pocket next year while a person earning €75,000 will be up €900.

There will also be tax relief of up to €1,250 for some 160,000 people with mortgages who have been hammered by European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate hikes due to record levels of inflation.

Homeowners will receive 20pc of the financial cost of interest rate hikes on their mortgage payments between 2022 and this year, and can apply for the support through Revenue’s Online Service.

The renter’s credit, now €500, could be increased to as much as €750, while landlords will receive tax relief at the 20pc standard rate on a proportion of their rental income – once they agree to keep their properties on the market.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys has also won support to finally introduce pay-related social welfare benefit for people who lose their jobs.

The Budget will see the introduction of a graduated payment scheme which will see the unemployed paid 60pc of their salary up to €450 a week for the first six months after they lose their job

All social welfare rates will increase by €12 a week while a €2.3bn cost-of-living package of one-off measures will be announced by Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.

This will include two double payments paid to welfare recipients – one in December and another in January.

There will also be a big focus on ­helping families in the Budget, with a double child benefit payment being paid to all parents before the end of the year while childcare costs are set to be reduced by 25pc.

Education Minister Norma Foley, meanwhile, will introduce a free schoolbook scheme which will benefit 770,000 pupils up to Junior Cert level.

First-, second- and third-year students will receive free schoolbooks from next September. Free copybooks, ­calculators, dictionaries and other classroom resources will be included as part of the package.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris will reduce college fees to €1,500 a year along with a more than €300 increase in student grants to help with the college costs.

Young adults aged up to 25 years old will also be able to avail of half-price public transport in a measure to be announced in the Budget.

The age limit for the young adult Leap Card, which reduces the cost of public transport by 50pc, will be available to those aged between 19 and 25. The current maximum age for the scheme is 23 years old. The 20pc reduction in public transport fees for all other travellers will be extended.

There will be a further 50c added to the price of 20 cigarettes while Mr McGrath will outline a plan to taxing e-cigarettes and vapes.

This will need legislation which will be enacted at a later date.

Fuel and alcohol will not be hit with a further excise increase and a scheduled 7c increase in the price of petrol and 6c on a litre of diesel, which had been due to apply from the end of this month, will be delayed.

Meanwhile, 130,000 small and medium businesses will get up to half of their commercial rates back under a special €250m package aimed at softening the impact of an unprecedented €1.40 increase in the minimum wage, bringing it to €12.70 an hour.

Employers’ PRSI hikes will also be delayed from January for either six or nine months under measures from Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney.

The scheme will see up to half of the rates already paid by businesses returned to them.

It will be aimed at small and medium enterprises, such as creches, butchers and coffee shops.

There will also be tax breaks to encourage angel investors to incentivise high-risk start-ups.

Meanwhile, there will be a 25pc increase in garda overtime to tackle ­anti-social behaviour and crime in towns and cities, with funding increased from €105 to €131m.

Between 800 and 1,000 new gardaí trainees will be announced as part of funds secured by Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

Trainee gardaí will get a 66pc increase to their training allowance from Budget Day, which will rise to €305 a week from the current €184.

Criminal legal aid will rise by 10pc at a cost of €9m after barristers ­protested outside the courts in recent weeks.

There will also be a €12m increase in funding to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and the establishment of a new agency next year.

Households will receive three €150 energy credits, totalling €450. The credits will be a lower version of last year’s three instalments of €200, or €600 in total.