Howlin: Budget will be 'pro-family'
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said that today's Budget will be "pro-family".
It has already been confirmed that free GP care will be provided to under 5's.
It is understood this will be paid for through a tightening up on the thresholds for medical cards for pensioners.
It is also speculated that the telephone allowance for elderly people will be scrapped and that prescription charges will be increased.
Minister Howlin said that the Government is making "difficult decisions" in a fair and balanced way.
"It'll be pro-families in every sense of that word," he said.
"Obviously there are very hard decision to make.
"You can't make adjustments of €2.5bn without impacting on people, and people understand that.
"We've done this over two Budgets up to now, so we're looking at very difficult decisions of course, but we're doing in as fair and balanced a way [as possible]."
