John Lyons TDPhone: 01 618 3280 Email: john.lyons@oireachtas.ie

After seven tough budgets in six years, Budget 2015 aims to raise living standardsagain and give something back to hard-pressed families around the country.

Tax Relief

In Budget 2015, people will start to see some benefits of recovery with money intheir pockets. Low and middle-income earners in particular will notice an increasein take home pay as a result of changes to USC and tax rates. 80,000 low paidworkers will be removed from paying USC altogether.

Investing in Services

For the first time in years, budgets can be maintained or increased rather than cut,thanks to the strong signs of economic recovery. Public services like health andeducation and new capital funding for social housing are priorities in this Budget

Creating Jobs

This Budget brings an end to the public service embargo. Through Pathways toWork and the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, we continue our drive to get people backto work.

Budget 2015 is not a give-away budget. It givesmodest increases back to people who may havestruggled in recent years. Everyone must share inthe recovery and this Budget is a first step inachieving that aim.

TOWARDS OUR SOCIAL RECOVERY BUDGET 2015:

� Tax relief for low and middle income earners

� Significant investment in job creation, housing and education

� Vital supports maintained and spending increased

HIGHLIGHTS OF BUDGET 2015

BUILDING OURSOCIAL RECOVERY

Investing in education is a key Labour priority inBudget 2015:

� New Teachers & SNAs: €88m in 2015 willensure 1700 new teachers and SNAs will beemployed in our schools during 2015. Therewill be 900 new classroom teachers in primaryand second-level schools, 480 resourceteachers and 365 SNAs.

� Class Sizes: For the fourth year in a row, Labourhas protected the class sizes in our schools.

� Back to School Costs: An additional €5m for school book funding in primary schools, on top of the €15m currentbudget.

� Free Broadband for schools:We are investing €3m to ensure the high-speed broadband which has been installedin all post-primary schools is available to them free of charge.

� Early Childhood Education: Under Budget 2015, we will spend €600,000 on the immediate recruitment of thefirst ever team of early childhood education inspectors to greatly improve the quality of early childhood education.

EDUCATION - 1700NEW TEACHERSAND SNAs

In Budget 2015, building new family homes is a priority:

� Over €2.2bn in funding for housing for the next three years.

� In 2015 alone, over €800 million has been allocated for the housing programme– the first major investment in housingsince 2009 and a 40% increase in spending on 2014 levels.

� This increased investment will deliver 7,500 family homes in 2015 and a total of 40,000 family homes by 2020.

� Spending on homelessness services will increase by over 20% to €55 million.

€2.2 BILLION HOUSING INVESTMENT

BUDGET 2015:

Christmas can be a time of greater financial strain for families. Under Budget 2015, we have secured a Christmas bonusof 25% for all people on long-term social welfare payments, including pensioners, families with children and peoplewith a disability. This payment will benefit over 1.16 million people.

CHRISTMAS BONUS RETURNS THIS YEAR AT 25% RATE

Many families have been under financial pressure over the past number of years. Budget 2015 will see an increase of €5in Child Benefit, from €130 to €135 a month to help support children and raise living standards for families. 613,000families will get this increase from January. The funding for the School Meals Programme is also to increase by €2millionto €39 million in 2015.

SUPPORTING FAMILIES: €5 EXTRA ON CHILD BENEFIT

Tax is being reduced for low and middle-incomeearners to ensure that those at work take homemore and begin to benefit from the recovery. Someof the key changes aimed at low and middle incomeearners are:

� A further 80,000 low paid workers are beingtaken out of USC with an increase in the entrypoint to €12,012

� Cut in lower rates of USC from 2% to 1.5% andfrom 4% to 3.5%

� The standard rate band of income tax has beenwidened by €1,000 to €33,800 to take 33,000people out of the top rate

� The marginal rate of tax has been cut by 1% for workers earning from €33,800 up to €70,000.

� For high earners over €70,000 the marginal rate remains unchanged.

TAX RELIEF MEASURES

Budget 2015 provides an extra €3 billion in resourcesfor the domestic economy. This will support anadditional 50,000 jobs next year, withunemployment falling further to 10% by the end of2015.

� As part of the Pathways to Work scheme in 2015,€1.6 billion will be made available for 300,000work and training places.

� €12 million for the JobPath scheme. This matcheslong-term unemployed with appropriate trainingand job opportunities.

� The number of JobsPlus positions has beendoubled to 6,000 with a focus on youngunemployed people.

The Back to Work Family Dividend is a newscheme under Budget 2015 to help jobseekerswith families return to work. It allowsjobseekers to keep the child payments for theirsocial welfare payment for two years whenthey take up a job.

This includes those who move to self-employment, such as back into theconstruction sector, and those on One ParentFamily Payment. The scheme will be worth€1,550 per child in the first year ofemployment or self-employment and half thatamount again in the second year.

HELPING FAMILIESBACK TO WORK

BUDGET 2015: PRIORITISING WORK

Working with your local Labour Team

Cllr Duncan Smith087 9862686duncansmithfingal@gmail.com

Cllr Áine Clancy087 7635406aine.clancy1@gmail.com

Cllr Andrew Montague087 908 0409andrewmontague@eircom.net

Cllr Brendan Carr087 207 5921brendan.carr@dublincity.ie

John Lyons TD Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2Tel: 01 618 3280Email: john.lyons@oireachtas.ieWeb: labour.ie/johnlyons

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� Budget 2015 provides for a further €35 million for mental health services.

� This brings to €125 million the total investment ring-fenced by the Government for mental health services since2012.

� This will enable the HSE to continue to develop and modernise our mental health services in line with therecommendations of A Vision for Change.

Specifically it will allow more staff to be hired to improve:

� Adult Community Mental Health Teams

� Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams

€35 MILLION RINGFENCED FOR MENTAL HEALTH

Over €3 billion has been allocated to support older people andservices for people with disabilities under Budget 2015. As well asthe new €100 per year water support payment for the HouseholdBenefits Package this includes:

LIVING ALONE ALLOWANCE INCREASEThe Living Alone Allowance will increase by €1.30per week, bringingthe rate up from €7.70 to €9. This is a payment for both pensionersand people disabilities living alone. This is the first increase in thispayment since 1996, and will benefit over 177,000 people.

ENDING THE PENSION LEVYPensioners have made a significant contribution to our economicrecovery in recent years. The 0.6% Pension levy was introduced tohelp fund the Jobs Initiative. It played an important role in thepositive jobs’ trend with 72,000 new jobs created since the peak ofthe crisis in 2012.

SENIORS ALERT SCHEME€133m is being invested under Budget 2015 in Community programmes, including €46m for the Social Inclusion andCommunity Activation Programme. This includes funding for Seniors Alert, which supports older people with installingmonitored alarms so they can continue to live securely in their homes.

PENSIONERS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

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� Specialist Community Mental Health Teams

� Suicide prevention initiatives