Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the measures announced last week was a change to the rules on school transport. That applies more to rural than urban areas, but it was very much targeted at the parents of young children. There are also changes in prescription charges. In addition, the many parents who cannot afford a car will benefit most from a cut in the cost of public transport. It is very expensive to pay for fares for adults and children, and that starts to hit home. More fundamentally, what was done last week was an adjunct to last October's budget. To go back to my earlier discussion with Deputy Doherty on the framing of the carbon tax, we deliberately designed measures to try to target lone parents, qualified children and the living alone allowance. The fuel allowance is not the only payment that was included. Using carbon tax to pay for some additional targeted measures in the social welfare Bill is one way to help those categories of people.

See this speech in context