James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What the Deputy says is utterly untrue. In the last budget there was an increase in children's allowance and extra money was made available to my Department to could support the Child and Family Agency. There was also a reduction in the marginal rate of tax, an increase in the threshold at which people moved into the higher rate of tax and reductions in the universal social charge. A further 80,000 were taken out of the net of the Fianna Fáil tax, the universal social charge. Much has been done by the Government, despite the ferocious challenges it faced when it took power and had to deal with the unprecedented financial mess in which Fianna Fáil had left the country.

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