Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It has been a tough budget but there have been some positives. Senator Healy Eames referred to the fact it is very much a pro-jobs budget. Seanad Éireann has been listened to. Some of the issues we have raised here continuously in regard to small business and to job creation measures have been taken into account.

I welcome the 10,000 new places on employment programmes, including 2,500 on Tús, 2,500 on JobBridge, 2,000 on community employment schemes and 3,000 on local authority social employment schemes, which is a new initiative. I welcome that the NPPR will be abolished in 2014. I echo the call made by Senator D'Arcy that the property tax be fixed at 0.18% for the next three years.