BUDGET MAIN POINTS

Lower rates of USC cut: 7% rate (on €18,668-€70,044) to 5.5%; 3.5% to 3%; and 1.5% to 1%. Entry point increases from €12,012 to €13,000.

Marginal rate of income tax will be at a maximum of 49.5% for all earning under €70,044. Free pre-school childcare for children from three to 5-and-a-half. Old age pension up €3 a week from January. Social welfare Christmas bonus restored to 75% of payment – so pensioner on €230 gets €173 bonus. Dole claimant on €188 gets €141. Fuel allowance up €2.50 a week to €22.50. Child Benefit up €5 a month to €140 from January. Carers’ respite care grant restored to previous level, €1,700. Duty on 20 cigarettes up 50c from last night. Only Budget tax rise. Minimum wage up €8.65 to €9.15 an hour from January. Two weeks paternity leave planned. Free GP care extended to children under 12. €50m for 1916 Rising Centenary commemorations. Six hundred extra gardaí. 2,200 extra teachers cutting primary pupil-teacher ratio from 28:1 to 27:1 and secondary from 19:1 to 18.7:1. Family Income Support threshold up by €5 a week for one child and €10 for two or more.

Capital Acquisitions Tax tax-free threshold up from €225,000 to €280,000. Self-employed & farmers get €550 tax credit. Bank levy stays until 2021, expected to bring in €750m extra. Pension fund levy abolished next year. Young trained farmers’ stamp-duty exemption extended to 2018.

Film tax credit up to €70m. 20,000 homes from Nama by end of 2020. Income from Knowledge Development Box taxed at reduced corporation tax rate of 6.25%.