Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is important to remember that fathers who work in the home, of which there are a growing number, will benefit from the changes in the same way. I am pleased that we are announcing an increase in the home carer’s credit from €810 to €1,000, which will offer better options to families at different stages in their lives. The days are rightly gone when child-rearing or caring for a relative was considered solely the woman’s prerogative. Many men now take some time off work to help with child-rearing at home. The time has long since past since this was considered solely a woman's prerogative.

At the same time, we are investing heavily in child care to increase options for families where both parents are in the workplace. This includes the extension of the early childhood care and education scheme, which has been a long-standing priority for me. In addition, I am allocating €5 million in 2016 for a new paternity benefit scheme. This will allow fathers in employment, from next September, to take two weeks paternity leave. This will be paid at the rate of €230 per week, based on the same PRSI contributions as required for maternity benefit.

This budget will raise living standards and improve services for workers, families and children. It will also increase incomes and provide greater security for retired people. Throughout the worst of the crisis, we protected the State pension. I am pleased that in this budget, we are announcing an above-inflation increase of €3 per week for pensioners aged 66 and over. This was a priority of mine and of the Taoiseach. This is the first weekly rate increase for pensioners since 2009 and is long overdue. In the years since, many pensioners have supported their adult children and their families throughout very difficult times. They deserve to see their income in retirement increase now that we have some room to do so.

I am glad that pensioners will not only receive a rate increase but will also benefit from the 75% Christmas bonus. The least well-off pensioners will also benefit from the increase in the fuel allowance. I am glad to say that this amounts to a solid three-part package for many of our retired citizens. I make no apologies to those who question the logic of the spend on the Christmas bonus. As Tánaiste and Labour Party leader, my focus is on ensuring we improve things for every person, not just a few. Fair dues to Fianna Fáil of former days and the late Mr. Haughey who introduced the Christmas bonus, which as a child I recall was of great importance to my great aunts and uncles and of great significance to people who find Christmas spending a particular challenge. The people of this country deserve immense credit for ensuring that social solidarity remained intact throughout the crisis, when it fractured in other countries. This solidarity is based on the simple concept, that age-old Irish tradition of looking out for someone less fortunate than oneself. The bonus is not just a welcome assistance to retired people at a financially stressful time of year, it also helps a range of other vulnerable people, including lone parents, long-term jobseekers, carers and people with disabilities. For a single person on disability allowance, this will mean a bonus payment of €141 at Christmas. For a pensioner couple, both in receipt of the non-contributory State pension, it will mean a bonus payment of €327.50. As we all know, the bonus is largely spent in local economies countrywide. It provides a boost not only for the individuals and families who receive it, but also for local businesses and the community. In other words, it is money well spent in every conceivable way.

While the bonus is an important measure for vulnerable groups it is not the only important measure. Carers play an incredibly important role in our society. I am, therefore, pleased to be increasing the respite care grant by €325 to €1,700 per annum. In addition, people in receipt of carer’s allowance will continue to receive their payment for an additional six weeks subsequent to the death of the loved one for whom they were caring. I am conscious that when the person for whom a carer has been caring dies this can be an enormously traumatic time. We have been in discussion with the Carer's Association in relation to the provision of options for people following that period. This will bring the total grace period from six weeks to 12 weeks.

Carer’s allowance recipients aged 66 and over will benefit from the €3 per week increase announced for pensioners.

We are also in a position to increase another very important support for vulnerable households, the fuel allowance. It will be increased by €2.50 a week to €22.50 for the duration of the fuel season. This means tested payment targets households with the most need for income support. This increase will benefit almost 381,000 low income households. There is not a Deputy in the House who does not know some elderly person or some other person living on their own perhaps in rural Ireland. The fuel allowance is incredibly important for them. As things improve for us, it is appropriate that the Government has agreed to resource that in a better way.

The social protection system has long ceased to be solely about income supports. Since 2011, the Department has also become a public employment service offering services to employers to identify and hire the right people. We have some of the best people who unfortunately are still without employment. In some cases they have engaged with the networks to find employment having lost their job and not being able to find another.. That is critical because secure and fairly paid work is the single best protection against poverty in the long term. It is the single best path to financial independence for a person or a family. The Labour Party has always been the party of work, and the party of workers’ rights. This is another pro-work budget, another budget designed to ensure that work pays. The increase in the minimum wage to €9.15 an hour from January is a hugely important measure for low-paid workers.

I pledged earlier this year that if we increased the minimum wage, we would address any PRSI effect that would arise from such an increase. We are doing precisely that in this budget. I am introducing a new tapered PRSI credit for class A PRSI employees earning between €352 and €424 in a week. This will reduce the weekly PRSI bill for over 88,000 employees and will be on top of the gains from the USC changes announced in the budget. In addition, the lower 8.5% class A rate of employer PRSI will be extended to over 26,000 employers as we increase the employer threshold from €356 to €376. To further support families in work, the income thresholds for family income supplement will be increased by €5 a week for families with one child and €10 a week for families with two or more children. This will result in an additional €3 or €6 per week for low-income working families in receipt of the family income supplement. This measure will benefit some 60,000 families who, among them, have more than 131,000 children. In addition, lone parent families who transitioned from the one-parent family payment to the jobseeker’s allowance transitional arrangements will benefit from changes to the latter, increasing the disregards and lowering the calculation of the means. Put simply, these measures will ensure additional income for lone parents in the workforce and help them build towards financial independence over time. Both the family income supplement and the changes in regard to the lone parent transitional payment are particularly designed to improve the situation for low income households and to encourage them in a situation where no one in the household is working to get at least one of the people in the household out working for a significant amount of time.

Coupled with all these measures are very significant investments in our schools, in health care, in housing and in other essential public services. For example, since the beginning of 2012, we have invested more than €1.25 billion in school buildings. We have built 102 new schools and completed 71 large-scale school extensions. Our primary schools have achieved the best reading and mathematics results in 30 years, thanks to the great work done by the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn-----

See this speech in context