Senior Coalition figures have also indicated that a signalled reduction in the cost of home heating oil for householders won’t be derived from a VAT cut despite the fuel industry advocating such a move.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris also reiterated his opposition to the abolition of stamp duty for first time buyers after the Taoiseach Michael Martin last week said he had a “favourable disposition” towards the idea.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il Cork South Central TD Seamus McGrath has also pushed the move in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Self-employed childminders in the home can currently earn up to \u20ac15,000 gross per year tax free.<\/p>\n
However, Government has been facing consistent calls to make childcare both more affordable and more accessible and to make good on a previous commitment to drive childcare costs down to \u20ac200 a month.<\/p>\n
“I’m looking at if there is a tax relief available in my own department to support people who are child-minding in the home. It hasn’t been increased in quite a number of years and I’m positively disposed to that as well,” said Mr Harris.<\/p>\n
“Childcare will be, and we’ve said this right across Government, childcare will be a priority area [in the Budget].”<\/p>\n
![\"T\u00e1naiste](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00230383-614.jpg\"\/)
\nSimon Harris said childcare will be a priority area of Budget 2027<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers are among the senior Government figures in recent days to confirm moves to tackle the price of kerosene, or home heating oil, in next month’s Budget after a 44% jump in cost over the last year.<\/p>\n
The industry body Fuels for Ireland has said the Coalition could move to cut VAT on home heating oil but two senior Ministers today distanced themselves from such a proposal, instead potentially opening the door for a further postponement of the carbon tax increase scheduled for next month.<\/p>\n
“The tax side of that [a home heating oil cut] is quite complex”, claimed the Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, “the cost would be quite significant to do anything in relation to that.”<\/p>\n
“It will be catastrophic in terms of cost to move off a 13.5% band so it’s very limited in tax in what we can do. There is Carbon Tax, so obviously Government will be looking at the options it has in regards to that. We will also look at targeted supports”, said Mr. Burke at the opening of a Fine Gael conference for small businesses in Dublin.<\/p>\n
“My sense of it is the benefit of a reduction in VAT is that it would be very limited for people in relation to [the cost of] home heating oil and the cost would be very significant [to the exchequer],” said Mr Harris.<\/p>\n
“There is also the issue in relation to how other taxes are applied to home heating oil, to kerosene, particularly the issue of the carbon tax”, he added while hinting the Government could treat home heating oil differently to other products when it came to the carbon tax based on proposals proffered by his department’s tax strategy group over the summer.<\/p>\n
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said he believed the carbon tax on home heating oil should be scrapped entirely.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a cost of living protest in Dublin, Deputy Murphy said: “People will welcome anything that gives a bit of relief. We are opposed to the carbon tax. We’ve been opposed to it from the word go. We think the whole thing should go because it is regressive.<\/p>\n
“It is not enough to give this small element of temporary relief in terms of carbon tax when then you are increasing the price of public transport and driving more people back into their cars. We need to be scrapping the carbon tax altogether,” he added.<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste rejected an assertion he was on a “collision course” with his Fianna F\u00e1il counterpart Michael Martin over a proposal to abolish stamp-duty for first time-buyers.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il backbenchers believe it is a worthwhile measure to help young people buy their first home but Mr Harris again reiterated his opposition to the idea.<\/p>\n
“I obviously talk to the Taoiseach on a very regular basis and we’re working very well in relation to the framing of this budget,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m not intending to bring forward any proposals in relation to stamp duty. That’s not news to colleagues across the coalition. My department doesn’t believe it’s a good idea from an economic point of view. We believe it could actually push up house prices and not lower the cost,” said the Wicklow TD.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been very clear with the \u20ac1.5 billion to spend in tax measures in this budget and the bulk of that will go on income tax measures, reducing the cost of the income tax burden facing people,” he concluded.<\/p>\n
The Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Rory Hearne criticised the Coalition’s approach to housing amid discussions on whether to abolish stamp duty for first time buyers.<\/p>\n
“What’s really concerning is that the Government – rather than taking a fundamental shift in its approach to housing – is continuing its subsidisation of the market.<\/p>\n
“Essentially what’s happening here is we’re not seeing action to reduce house prices. What we have argued in the Social Democrats very clearly was for the state to deliver affordable housing on a major scale using, for example, a state construction company,” said Mr Hearne, also speaking at a cost of living protest in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris confirmed the Government would “take stock” in next month’s Budget on the planned unwinding of excise cuts on petrol and diesel on 1 November, echoing comments both he and the Taoiseach have made in recent days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minister for Finance has said the Government may introduce a tax break for childminders in next month’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-629716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}