Parental leave

A new paid parental leave scheme will be introduced to provide two extra weeks’ leave to every parent of a child in their first year. It is planned to increase this to seven extra weeks.

Minimum wage

Increase in minimum wage from €9.55 to €9.80 with effect from 1 January 2019.

Betting

Betting duty on customers is to be increased to 2% on all bets placed in the State while the commission earned by betting intermediaries has increased from 15% to 25%.

VRT relief

Extension to the VRT relief for conventional hybrids and plug-in electric hybrids to 31 December 2019.

Cigarettes

Price of 20 cigarettes to rise by 50c from midnight 9 October 2018. All tobacco products will be chargeable to a minimum excise duty of €11 even if sold at a price lower than this