The much-quoted dogs on the street knew it was going to be a giveaway budget – and thus it came to pass.
Was there ever any doubt about it, what with the pressing matter of an upcoming general election, that Budget 2025 was going to be a bonanza, with something for everybody in the audience?
1) Posting a very healthy 295,995 views, our Budget 2025 Main Points article sits comfortably at the top of our leaderboard of most-read business stories in 2024.
Presented by Minister for Finance Jack Chambers – in his first outing – and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, the budget was replete with tax cuts, spending rises and one-off measures to help alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.
The minimum wage was increased by 80 cent an hour, €250 was being put towards people’s electricity bills, the 4 per cent Universal Social Charge was cut to 3 per cent, and the tax bands were widened.
Weekly social welfare payments went up by €12 and weekly qualified child payments increased by €4 for under-12s, and €8 for over-12s.
Funding for 768 additional special education teachers and 1,600 more special needs assistants was also announced. You could not beat off the largesse with a stick.
2) Our second most read, at 160,378 views and written by Conor Pope, concerns Becca and Luca’s experience on what should have been a wonderful break.
Under the headline ‘Sorry you lost the money’: Couple loses thousands of euro of wedding savings in Revolut ‘ordeal’, we were told that the couple, while on a pre-Christmas sun holiday, watched in horror as their wedding fund was drained form their Revolut account.
Days of frustrating and confusing communications with the fintech followed, along with their own attempts to retrieve their money from a merchant on the other side of the world.
At no point during the process were the distressed couple able to actually talk to a human being working for the company with which they had stored their savings.
3) The grass is greener kind of sums up our third most read, as readers were attracted by a pay-related story of interest (pardon the pun). Headlined Public sector workers to get pay rise of 10.25% over 2½ years under €3.6bn deal, Emmet Malone and John Fallon detailed how a new pay deal for 385,000 civil and public sector workers had been agreed between union and Government representatives that will see pay rises of 10.25 per cent over 2½ years. The story garnered 113,203 views.
The agreement, reached in January 2024, will impact on a huge cross-section of Irish workers, from healthcare professionals and others working for the HSE to administrative staff across the Civil Service, teachers and members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces.
4) Clocking in with an impressive 111,951 views was our liveblog detailing what happened throughout the day of Budget 2025′s announcement.
It covered all the day’s news stories emanating from the budget, with contributions from across The Irish Times: news, politics, economics, sport and the arts.
It gave our readers a comprehensive breakdown of all the tax and social welfare changes, as well as links to the budget calculator and our ask-the-experts Q&A.
5) A story that would be welcome at any time, but definitely in the week after Christmas, was this one from Dominic Coyle, headlined Ulster Bank wipes out customers’ credit card bills as it exits Republic. It tabled 100,827 views.
It did what it exactly said on the tin – the bank sent out letters to customers who had yet to close their credit card accounts telling them “the outstanding balance on your credit card account has been refunded”.
“Please do not make any further payments to your Ulster Bank credit card account,” the letter said, as the bank continued to shut down operations in the Republic.
6) Coming in at number 6, from Barry J Whyte and posting a solid 79,757 in views, is a story headlined Distillery calls in receivers as it fails to raise fresh funding.
We were told that receivers were appointed over Waterford Whisky, the distillery business founded by industry veteran Mark Reynier, after it failed to raise fresh funds.
The receivership was the culmination of several weeks of efforts by the company and its main lender, HSBC bank, to put in place a turnaround plan for the business. It was also noted that the receivership was a consensual appointment.
7) Who could ignore a story with the headline We have six cars, one for each of the kids and one for the dog, who has nerve issues? And 79,128 readers didn’t.
In our Wild Geese slot, which talks to emigrants about their lives and careers in their adopted countries, Michelle Jackson spoke in March to Jonathan O’Connor, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and works for Synovus Bank, where he is now divisional chief executive of merchant sponsorship.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Mr O’Connor, who has recovered from a rare form of spinal cancer and warns that health insurance is vital if you are living and working in the US.
8) Headlined Domino’s Pizza Group to buy largest franchise in Ireland for €72m, this straightforward news story by Ciara O’Brien pulled in 76,538 views and told us that the pizza group had acquired the remaining 85 per cent shareholding in franchise business Shorecal Limited, which operates more than a third of its stores on the island of Ireland, as it targeted further growth.
9) Our ninth on the list is about another holiday derailed. This time, Conor Pope’s Pricewatch personal finance column heard from a reader who had a €6,500 holiday to India with his wife ruined by a “minor imperfection” on a passport, as they could not board their Emirates flight.
Under the headline Irish couple’s €6,500 dream holiday ruined after Emirates staff spot this minor blemish on passport, the story clocked up 75,860 views. It was, as the columnist put it, “a reminder to all readers to check their passports carefully”.
10) Our last story, headlined Can my wife get a widow’s pension alongside the old-age pension when I die?, by Dominic Coyle, dealt with a reader’s query. It finishes our top 10 with 74,372 views and, unfortunately for the reader, that columnist’s reply was basically “no”.
