{"id":630046,"date":"2026-09-20T00:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630046\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T00:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:42:09","slug":"stamp-duty-cut-a-non-runner-but-home-heating-oil-and-childcare-a-budget-focus-says-harris-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630046\/","title":{"rendered":"Stamp duty cut a non-runner but home-heating oil and childcare a budget focus, says Harris \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> has again ruled out any move to abolish stamp duty for first-time home buyers in Budget 2027<\/a>. His remarks appeared to contradict the Taoiseach, who said in Manchester on Friday that the measure was still \u201con the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the Ecofin meeting of EU<\/a> finance ministers at Dublin Castle on Saturday, Harris said: \u201cI\u2019m not intending to bring forward proposals in relation to stamp duty and that\u2019s not news to colleagues across the Coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his department was against any change in the area, believing it \u201cis not a good idea\u201d, and that while there will be measures intended to address the ongoing housing crisis<\/a>, they will, he said, be focused on boosting supply.<\/p>\n

He also suggested funding for any cut to stamp duty would not be available as most of the \u20ac1.5 billion earmarked for tax cuts is set to go on the promised packages of personal taxation bands and increases to credits.<\/p>\n

Asked about potential measures to address the affordability of fuel, and in particular home-heating oil, the Minister said a change to the rate of VAT involved was unlikely. Expanding on this, he said he has very limited scope to cut the tax on heating oil and so \u201cthe benefit of a reduction in VAT would be very limited for people in relation to home-heating oil and the cost would be very significant\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rural home heating oil conundrum \u2013 high costs and lack of an alternative from GovernmentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, \u201cenergy costs and the cost of filling a home-heating tank is a big concern for Government\u201d, he added. With this in mind, he is looking at the carbon tax as it applies to kerosene and increases to fuel allowance which would impact a quarter of households.<\/p>\n

The recent Tax Strategy Group report had, he said, allowed for the possibility of \u201ctreating some products differently\u201d with regard to carbon tax, and this is being taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

The reduced rate of excise duty on fuel, initially introduced after nationwide protest by farmers, haulier and others earlier this year, is due to expire on November 1st. Harris hinted at another extension of the measures, observing that October 6th, the day of Budget 2027, would present \u201ca chance to take stock\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the early education sector, he said the Government remains committed to the Programme for Government, which aims to substantially improve affordability for parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of those the Government thinks we can really structurally fix and build a childcare system that is fit for purpose,\u201d he said. The Minister indicated that moves were likely to come this year in the form of increases to National Childcare Scheme payments and, potentially, reductions in fee caps. Such a measure would require funding increases to operators under the Core Funding scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Finance Simon Harris has again ruled out any move to abolish stamp duty for first-time home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5168,42,43,70,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-630046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-budget","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-simon-harris","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630046","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=630046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}