Income
- Telephone allowance of €2.50/week for those on fuel allowance and living alone allowance. No discussion of what kind of phone this would cover.
- Increase in Disability Payments of €5/week •Extend the fuel allowance season by 1 week.
- Increased funding for the Free Travel Scheme
Health
- Prescription charge for those on the medical card reduced to €2, monthly cap reduced to €20.
- Monthly threshold for Drug payment scheme reduced from €144 to €134.
- €55 million increase in NTPF.
- €90 Million for an access plan to help people access care.
- €40 million for increased investment in primary care. No details as of yet.
- €15 Million for transition programmes for school leavers with disabilities
- €35 million for Mental Health, to implement the Vision for Change
- 1,800 front-line health service personnel to be recruited across the acute, mental health, disability, primary and community care sectors
Education
- 10 NEPS psychologists will be recruited in 2018.
- €2 million for a pilot scheme for in-school speech and language therapy.
- 100 extra teachers for implement of the new special education teaching model
- 230 extra teachers in special school and special classes
- 1,000 new SNAs
Housing
- Up to 400 homes to be provided in 2018 for people with specific needs.
- Funding for housing adaptation grants increased to €53 million to fund up to 11,000 grants for people with disabilities and older people.
- €1.9 billion allocated overall to housing.
- 3,800 new social houses to be in 2018 by approved housing bodies and local authorities.
- €149m on the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme.
- €18m increase in homeless services to over €116m.
- Plans to accelerate social housing delivery from 2019.
- €500m extra to result in 3,000 extra new build social houses by 2021.
- Extra €75m funding to Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, phase two.
- €750m funding available for commercial investment in housing.
Other
- €3 million in funding for the Decision Support Service, a key part of the Assisted Decision Making Act 2015.
- €1 million additional funding to the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme.
- Further investment in Family Resource Centres