If Budget 2025 was the 'Windfall Budget' with one-off
measures aplenty for all, with controls cast off in anticipation of
an election, Budget 2026 was presented as a belt-tightening
exercise with the substantive focus being on protecting jobs and
housing market initiatives.
That said, Budget 2026, with a package of over €9.4 billion
was not significantly less than the package in Budget 2025 of
€10.5 billion, drawing warnings from the ESRI. Many
commentators are predicting a large deficit of €13.6 billion
in 2026, when 'windfall' corporation tax receipts are
excluded. However, these spending increases continue for this year
at least.
In this Bulletin, we highlight some of the more substantive
taxation measures, amounting to just over €1.3 billion,
introduced by Budget 2026. Whilst the real detail of many of these
changes will be contained in Finance Bill 2025, we have addressed
some of these measures below.
