Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy reads the analysis on people being better or less well off, he will find it has been my concern in the budget to ensure that 80,000 people are lifted out of the universal social charge. The two lower rates of the universal social charge, which mostly apply to the people on lower pay to whom the Deputy referred, have been reduced by half a percentage point each. That of course benefits everybody else. When those on low pay get their wage packets, slips and statements in January and February they will see a very significant saving in regard to the USC, the first in a long line of budgets. I would like it to be more, but it is a start. Some 1.1 million of those living exclusively on a social welfare income on a long-term basis will receive in the first half of December a Christmas bonus of a quarter of the weekly rate.

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