Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In many cases those recommendations were not acceptable to this Government. If they were not, the Government was required to cost alternatives which would achieve the same growth objective. That is why one of the first decisions was to reverse the cut in the minimum wage that had been brought in by the previous Government. Despite economic constraints, there are now 420,000 people who do not have any liability for the universal social charge. That will increase to 500,000 people in the October budget, taking a further 80,000 people out of that bracket.

The focus of the Government in terms of income has been on earners of €75,000 down to €30,000 who have had to pay for everything. The real priority is in there, hard-pressed working families in many cases. While the situation has improved, I am the first to say it is not yet the way we want it to be and we still have quite a distance to go.

The Deputy spoke earlier about some of the issues in respect of lone parents. I did not have time to say the single parent child carer tax credit is €1,650 per annum and this has the effect of reducing the claimant's tax liability by €31.73 a week, which is an important consideration for a person in that position. In addition, that claimant may also be entitled to an extension in the rate band of €4,000, which would increase the rate band for 2015 from €33,800 to €37,800 which is an important element. Where income exceeds €37,800, that additional rate band is worth a maximum of €840 or €16.15 per week. These are deliberate changes to impact beneficially on lower-paid people. The maximum value of the credit in the additional rate band is €2,490 or €47.88 a week, and this credit is payable to any single person with a child under 18 years of age or over 18 years of age if in full-time education. As well as this, as the Tánaiste has already pointed out, there is the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement which is important. The back to work family dividend is designed to further improve the incentive of taking up employment for people with children. It will allow lone parents transitioning from the jobseeker's allowance to retain their increase for a qualified child if they move off welfare and into employment. There is the re-rating of the family income supplement and enhanced access to the Intreo service, which is now a very different animal than it used to be as people are spoken to and interviewed in respect of their ambitions, motivation, experience and willingness to work. We also have JobsPlus and the changes that have been made in child care, and further work is going on.

Child poverty is an issue for everybody. It is important that something be done about it. This is why these changes in the welfare area are all positive. The difference in what the Government did in meeting the targets to allow us to move out of the bailout programme was to remain competitive, not increase income tax and have pro-growth proposals which have now led to a point where this country is recognised internationally, as the Deputy knows, as being exceptionally attractive for investment.

The Deputy raised a number of important points about the Tyndall National Institute and other areas around the country. We have the major success of the web summit every year and all of the people who work on it. Up to 25,000 people will participate this year. This has all to do with research and innovation to an extraordinary degree. At the other end of the scale-----

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