Republic of Ireland Budget 2019 - Health and Social Welfare
Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe, delivered his 2nd budget today, 9th October.
Health and Social Welfare
- A reduction in prescription charges from €2 to €1.50 for all medical card holders over the age of 70 has been announced.
- A €25 increase in the weekly income threshold for GP visit cards has been announced.
- The government has promised increased investment of €84 million in mental health services which will bring total funding for mental health up to €1 billion. This is a welcome announcement given that the Budget falls within Mental Health Week.
- All weekly social welfare payments are to increase by €5 per week from March 2019, and the Christmas bonus will be fully restored to all social welfare recipients.
- Two weeks paid parental leave for every parent of a child under one year old is to be introduced in November 2019, to be eventually increased to seven weeks. This is on top of the maternity and paternity leave options already in place.
- Qualified child payments are increasing by €2.20 per week for under 12 year olds and €5.20 per week for over 12 years olds.
- Back to school clothing and footwear allowance rates are increasing to €25.
Back to summary of Republic of Ireland Budget 2019
A PDF version of the full Summary of the Facts is available here.
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