A number of electricity credits for households, and continued cuts to transport fares, are among measures announced as part of Budget 2023.

Following on from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe's speech, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said the Government was "responding" to Brexit, COVID and the invasion of Ukraine.

He added: "This is a budget for its time, a budget that seeks to respond with unprecedented resources, with a breadth of measures, and a speed of execution we have not seen before.

"We do not suggest that this budget will meet every need. That would not be possible", he said.

Energy credits

As part of the measures, there will be a €600 electricity credit for all households.

This will be paid in three instalments of €200 - with the first payment to be made before Christmas.

Two further instalments will arrive in the new year - costing a total of €1.2 billion.

Allowances

There will be a once-off double week 'Cost of Living Support' payment to all social protection recipients to be made in October.

It will include pensioners, carers, people on disability payments and jobseekers.

While the normal Christmas bonus will also be paid in early December.

There will also be a double Child Benefit payment (€140), a lump sum Working Family payment (€500) and a once-off payment before Christmas to people who receive the Living Alone Allowance (€200).

A once-off payment of €500 will also be made in November to those who qualify for Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and the Blind Pension.

And in addition to the normal weekly Fuel Allowance, a lump sum payment of €400 will be made before Christmas to these recipients.

Transport

The 20% reduction in public transport fares is being extended to the end of 2023 - as is the 50% discount on the Youth Travel Card.

Students

A once-off reduction in the Student Contribution of €1,000 will be applied for 2022-2023.

And a once-off double monthly payment for those in receipt of the SUSI maintenance grant will also be available.

There will also be a €1,000 increase to the postgraduate tuition fee contribution grant.

Social welfare

A €12 social welfare increase has been announced across the board.

This includes the Working Family Payment threshold increasing by €40 a week.

The Qualified Child Allowance is being raised by €2 a week.

The income threshold for the Fuel Allowance will increase from €120 to €200 above the State pension.

For over-70s specifically, the means limit is increasing to €500 for single people and €1,000 for couples.

Childcare

There will be a 25% reduction in the cost of childcare under the National Childcare Scheme at cost of €121 million.

"This measure will put up to €175 a month, or €2,106 a year, back in the pockets of parents next year", Minister McGrath said.

Housing

€1.7bn is to be allocated for housing to deliver a target of 9,100 new social homes.

There will also be €215 million - an increase of €40 million - for three key affordable schemes: the Local Authority affordable purchase scheme, the AHB Cost rental scheme and the national First Home Shared Equity scheme.

While €215 million was also announced for homeless ervices.

A further €87 million is to be allocated to the retrofitting of social housing in 2023.

And €337 million of funding will go towards grants for energy efficiency, to fund over 37,000 home energy upgrades.

Health

A total health budget of €23.4 billion is available next year.

This includes the delivery of 650 acute and community beds by the end of 2023, as well as a COVID allocation of €757 million.

There is also funding for the recruitment of up to 6,000 additional staff, and extra money to tackle waiting lists.

Inpatient charges are also to be removed for all public patients, and free GP care is to be extended to more than 400,000 people.

Free contraception is also being expended to women from the age of 16 up to 30.

There are also supports for the first time in relation to IVF treatment.

Education

The recruitment of an additional 1,194 SNAs will bring the total number to more than 20,300.

Funding has also been announced for a reduction in the pupil teacher ratio by one point to 23:1, with 370 additional teaching posts.

And there will be free school books for all pupils in recognised primary schools within the Free Education Scheme from September next year.

Justice and Defence

Funding is being made available to recruit a further 1,000 Gardaí.

While an additional 430 Garda civilian staff will also free up more frontline Gardaí for core policing duties.

And a new recruitment campaign next year will also supply 200 new recruits every three months over the coming years.

There will also be an extra 400 permanent Defence Force members recruited in 2023.

And the Defence budget will increase by €35 million to €176 million.

Minister McGrath said this "step change" in funding for Defence will be used to prioritise the development of a Primary Radar capability to secure Irish airspace.