Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I just require a couple of minutes. I wish to draw attention to a few of the social protection initiatives in the recent budget. At the outset I refer to some of the broad, general principles underpinning the provisions. The principles in summary are as follows: first, to assist unemployed families to return to work; second, to help all families with the cost of raising children and; third, to give explicit recognition to the additional pressures on pensioners and people with disabilities who live alone.

Those are some of the principles underlying the measures. Now, I wish to give a little detail on a few of the main provisions. Under the heading of assisting people to return to work, there will be a new back to work family dividend for lone parents and the long-term unemployed. That will be of the order of €30 per child per week. A total of €12 million has been allocated to the measure for 2015. Second, the doubling of JobsPlus places from 3,000 to 6,000 will greatly incentivise employers to take on long-term unemployed people. The Minister has also devoted €12 million to the measure for 2015. Third is the provision of a further €12 million for the new employment support programme, JobPath, as my colleague, Deputy Seán Kenny, has just mentioned.

I wish to refer briefly to measures to support families with children. Child benefit will be increased by €5 per month to bring the support up to €135 per month for each child. Additional funding for school meals is included in this category of support. I pay tribute to all those who volunteer to distribute school meals within schools, who do the work diligently and without any payment.

Turning to the budget supports for older people and people with disabilities, the living alone allowance will be increased to €9 per week, an investment of €12 million per annum. A total of 177,500 pensioners and people with disabilities will benefit from the programme of support. It is worth noting that this is the first increase in this category of provision since 1996.

Finally, I wish to refer to the return of the Christmas bonus. It is a very special payment. The first instalment of the return to the full Christmas bonus was made by the Minister in this year’s budget. A payment of 25% of the Christmas bonus will be made this year.

I commend the two Ministers, in particular, the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, who is carrying out his new job with great diligence and energy. I commend the Minister, Deputy Burton and the Minister of State, Deputy Humphreys, for their attention to the contributions of Members from all sides of the House. They have done their best to deliver the available funding.

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