As Ice Cube once said, today was a good day, I neither, as Mr. Cube goes on to say, had to use my AK and have learned that the minimum wage is set to increase by some 30c.
Today the finance minister, Pascal Donohue, read some notes out of a dilapidated briefcase in front of the Dáil. These notes contained what is to be Ireland's proposed budget for 2018 - as well as a few crude doodles of Marty Morrissey eating a jaffa cake the size of a big dog, though these will hopefully form no relation to the national budget.
Leo Varadkar had promised that there would be no 'fireworks' in this budget, as always, we still have to go up north for those. He said that, despite the economy picking up, it would be budget 2019 before we see any real loosening of the purse strings in terms of public spending, however there were a few crucial bones thrown our, the proletariat's, way.
Crucially, they have promised to raise the national minimum wage by 30c from €9.25 to €9.55, which is thunderingly good news. So any students with part-time jobs, or indeed any graduates starting out will hopefully have a little more in their pay-packet, and will presumably then be shitting naggins, due to all the extra dough you'll be rolling in.
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There is also a cut on both USC rates. The lower rate will be cut from 2.5% to 2% while having the bracket for which this rate is applicable raised to €19,372. The higher rate will be reduced from 5% to 4.75%.
The threshold for the higher rate of income tax will also raise by €750 from €33,800 to €34,550. While this won't affect any but the highest of high-rollers among our readers it's all definitely a sign that things are starting to look up again for average Irish workers.
