Mr Joe Kelly, from Kilkenny, has been unemployed for the last three years. He formerly worked as a community worker.
MY overall verdict is that this is a disappointing Budget.
Considering the amount of money there was to spend, the Minister failed to seize the opportunities. It is a Budget aimed at those in high-paid jobs.
An increase of £3 per week in welfare rates is very disappointing. Unemployed people I have spoken to were all expecting at least £5. Very few of them are going to notice a change in their financial circumstances with a £3 increase.
On top of this, we will all have to wait until April before we see the money coming through. Before this we only had to wait from January.
It is even more disappointing than previous years because this time there could have been a real effort to bring up the rates.
The average weekly payment of Family Income Supplement is rising by £11 and that is welcome.
The special tax allowance of £3,000 for long-term unemployed people in their first year of employment will be a good incentive for people to take up jobs.
However, the tax bands should have been widened further to speed this process up.
The most welcome element is the extension of the back-to-work allowance scheme to people based in different parts of the State. About 27,000 people will be able to get onto it, but when you consider the total unemployed, this is a drop in the ocean.
When you consider all the changes to Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax, items which are of most concern to wealthy people, you see that this Budget is not targeted at the right people.
Despite some of the good initiatives, the low rate of social welfare increase puts the Budget in a bad light.