Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Further measures include capitation payments to schools from the beginning of 2024 and a €50 million increase in funding for school transport.

These announcements represent further important strides in transforming the quality, the affordability and the inclusivity of our education system.

SOCIAL PROTECTION

While providing supports, we also need to ensure that our welfare system improves living standards and helps all to fulfil their potential. I am announcing a social protection package for 2024 worth almost €1.1 billion. It is targeted to those with the greatest need, in particular our children. This includes: for an individual in receipt of a weekly social protection payment, I am providing for an increase of €12 per week; and to support those with a disability further and to support our carers, I am increasing the carer's allowance means test disregard to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple, allocating additional funds to provide free travel for people medically certified unfit to drive, and reducing the minimum weekly hours threshold for eligibility for the wage subsidy scheme from 21 hours to 15.

The Minister for Finance has announced, as a one-off tax scheme, a plan to further offset increased mortgage costs for eligible claimants in early 2024. Further to this, my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, will work with the Minister to provide a payment, where necessary, through the Department of Social Protection, with the details to follow.

It is also important that we begin to address the long-term sustainability challenges faced by our pensions system. Earlier this year, the Government decided against increasing the pension age but instead decided to take a measured approach to increasing PRSI contribution rates on a phased and gradual basis over a number of years. It is therefore appropriate that we act now to increase PRSI contribution rates. So, from 1 October next year, all PRSI contribution rates will increase by 0.1%. This measure, which will raise €240 million in a full year, is a modest but necessary step to secure pension entitlements for this and future generations. The Minister for Social Protection will also bring forward proposals on a new pay-related benefit in advance of the Social Welfare Bill.

Taken together, the measures that we are introducing throughout the remainder of this year and next year represent substantial levels of State support for our most vulnerable. Over the past two years, the Government has successfully combined increases in core social welfare payments in combination with a series of targeted cost-of-living packages to provide the most protection to those households with the lowest incomes from the impact of inflation. This budget builds on that approach.

HOUSING

To continue to provide support where it is needed, the provision of housing continues to be an absolute priority for this Government. Housing delivery is performing strongly, with more than 21,000 new homes started in the first eight months of the year, meaning that we now expect to exceed our target of delivering 29,000 new homes by the end of the year. As a result of this progress, around 400 first-time buyers are purchasing their own homes each week. Next year, we will accelerate this progress with just under €7 billion of funding to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, of which €2.6 billion will be capital investment in housing. This will be supplemented by Land Development Agency investment and by Housing Finance Agency lending, resulting in an overall capital provision for housing of over €5 billion for 2024.

Some of the measures included in that are as follows: €1.9 billion in capital funding to deliver 9,300 new-build social homes; €265 million to support the delivery of 6,400 affordable homes; €242 million for homeless services and accommodation; a further €35 million to support the Housing First initiative and to home homeless adults in permanent homes with full supports; €90 million to the retrofitting of social housing in 2024, which demonstrates the State’s commitment to help people reduce their energy bills and to ensure that our country meets our climate targets; and €207 million will also be provided to bring back into supply vacant and derelict units through the voids programme and the Croí Cónaithe towns vacant grant scheme to support the regeneration of towns through the urban regeneration development fund.

These measures renew our commitment to deliver Housing for All, which will see us deliver 300,000 new homes-----

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