Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Through our social protection frameworks, we have mechanisms that will enable us to do that in terms of the various payments and so on that we can increase, but we will prioritise in respect of the child poverty question. We will prioritise in terms of disability and in terms of the additional costs that families with people who are disabled have to incur, and we will seek to alleviate that. We are conscious of the programme for Government commitments we have made in respect of the carer's allowance also.

The budget, fundamentally, is an investment in the future of the country. We are prioritising capital investment. We need to catch up on infrastructure. Last year alone, there was an increase of close to 100,000 in our population. There has been a very significant increase in the population in this country over the past two to three decades and that is creating pressure, undoubtedly, on services and on infrastructure.

We are investing in the future - in water, energy, grid, housing - and that will be a key part of the budget.

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