{"id":631113,"date":"2026-09-21T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631113\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T05:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:30:20","slug":"budget-2027-teenagers-set-to-receive-e100-voucher-for-cultural-events-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631113\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2027: Teenagers set to receive \u20ac100 voucher for cultural events \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 70,000 16-year-olds would get a \u20ac100 voucher to spend on arts and culture events under a Budget 2027 <\/a>proposal.<\/p>\n

It is understood that Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan hopes to introduce the measure via the budget <\/a>and extend it to 17-year-olds in Budget 2028. <\/p>\n

Teenagers would have the freedom to choose how they spend the voucher, which could go towards the cost of a ticket for a concert or be spent in smaller increments on things like a cinema trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"What is driving the abuse and intimidation of politicians here?<\/p>\n

The proposal, which was first reported by the Sunday Independent, would cost an estimated \u20ac7.5 million in its first year. <\/p>\n

In advance of the 2024 general election, Fine Gael suggested introducing a so-called \u201cculture card\u201d worth \u20ac300 for 16- and 17-year-olds \u201cto access theatre, music, and art events, making cultural experiences more accessible for young people\u201d. Examining the introduction of such a card was then included in the programme for government. <\/p>\n

It comes as Ministers prepare to spend the next two weeks negotiating the budget<\/a>. An enhanced childcare subsidy, changes to income tax, a cost of disability payment, more access to third-level grants and some form of fuel supports have already been flagged by Ministers. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, Minister for Finance Simon Harris <\/a>said he has limited scope to reduce 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

Harris also ruled out any move to abolish stamp duty for first-time homebuyers in the budget. <\/p>\n

Speaking after the Ecofin [The Economic and Financial Affairs Council] meeting of EU 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, they will, he said, be focused on boosting supply.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Corporate landlord credits profit surge to housing shortageOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing still believes that expanding the Help to Buy <\/a>scheme is up for discussion in the budget. It is understood that Minister for Housing James Browne <\/a>wants to increase the refund to \u20ac50,000. Under the existing scheme, first-time buyers buying a new home worth under \u20ac500,000 can get 10 per cent of the property\u2019s purchase price or \u20ac30,000 back in a tax refund. Browne wants to increase this to \u20ac50,000. The department is also seeking an increase to the renters\u2019 tax credit. <\/p>\n

Harris has cautioned about speculating on whether the measure could happen, citing a possible \u201cdestabilising effect on the housing market\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 70,000 16-year-olds would get a \u20ac100 voucher to spend on arts and culture events under a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5168,3775,42,43,6232,70,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-631113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-budget","tag-fine-gael","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-patrick-o-donovan","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\/631113","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=631113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}