Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the Deputy's characterisation of the package announced earlier. I will go into that matter in some more detail later on. I need to emphasise again, and as I said last week, this is not a budget. We only had a budget a few months ago. Some of the measures only started kicking in in the past few weeks. Some have yet to kick in. This is not a mini-budget either; it is a series of one-off measures to help families with children, pensioners, vulnerable people and small businesses.

The Deputy stated that our focus is almost entirely on one-off measures. That is patently untrue. Up to today we have announced 25 individual actions, many of which are permanent. The increase in pension payments of €12 per week only kicked in a few weeks ago. We also introduced an additional €12 per week in respect of welfare payments, and some additional targeted payments. We lowered income taxes and introduced the rent tax credit. We introduced cheaper childcare, with a 25% reduction in the cost of childcare for families. Healthcare costs are going down. Within a few months, free GP care will be extended to many more people. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is working on that t the moment, with a particular emphasis on middle- to low-income families. The lowest income families have this already, but we want to go the next step and target the low- to middle-income families. Lower public transport costs have been introduced, and we are making the student grant available to more people. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, has done that. More students will be eligible for the student grant at a higher rate come September.

In terms of targeting the most vulnerable, I will give the Deputy the facts. There will be a €100 payment per child in June. That will be universal because all families need a little bit of help. For the poorest families, the extra €100 on the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will be repeated this year. For those in receipt of the working family payment, namely, low-income working families, an extra €200 bonus will be paid in April. State exam fees have been waived. I mentioned what we have done on school transport as well. The provision of free school books in primary schools will kick in from September. A crucial development, and this is something that is very close to my heart, relates to what we are doing in respect of free hot school meals. The latter were introduced by the previous Government and their provision is being expanded under this Government. The Ministers for Education and Social Protection and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, worked very hard on this in order to ensure that it will be extended to all special schools and all DEIS primary schools. Think about it: in September, which is not too far away, every child in a DEIS school will get a hot meal each day.

Every child in primary school will get free schoolbooks. There will be only a modest charge for school transport. I do not think it is fair of the Deputy to say we are not interested in reducing child poverty. Just in the space of one year and a few months, measures such as that have been taken. They are not insignificant. The Deputy is being a bit mean-spirited by not acknowledging that.

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