Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil in his Budget speech that all weekly social welfare payments will be increased again in 2019.
All weekly social welfare payments will rise by €5 per week from next March.
The 100% Christmas bonus payment will be fully restored to all social welfare recipients this year.
From November 2019, a new paid parental leave scheme will be introduced to provide two extra weeks' leave to every parent of a child in their first year.
The Minister said it is planned to increase this to seven extra weeks' over time.
Head of Advocacy with Barnardos, June Tinsley said the increase in parental leave is good news for families of new-borns.
"However, it is our understanding the parental leave announced today won’t come into effect until November 2019 meaning that more than three years into the Partnership Government it has achieved a tiny fraction of the 24 weeks it promised."
Separately, from next March, the earnings disregard for the One Parent Family Payment will be increased with a maintenance disregard for the Working Family Payment also to be introduced.
The Qualified Child Payment will be increased by €2.20 per week for children under 12 and there will be a €5.20 per week increase for children over 12.
There will also be a €25 increase in both the Back to School Clothing and Footware Allowance rates.
Doherty defends roll-out of parental benefit scheme
The Minister responsible for rolling out the parental benefit scheme announced in the Budget has defended the decision to delay paying out the money in 13 months' time.
Regina Doherty told a post-Budget news conference that she needed money from Budget 2019 in order to ensure that the scheme would be introduced in November next year.
She said it would be a "brand new non-transferrable scheme that needs a brand new information technology programme".
Ms Doherty added that it was not a matter of simply merging the existing schemes which pay paternity and maternity allowances.
The Department’s summary of the main budget changes says the new Social Insurance Parental Benefit Payment will be paid for two weeks for each parent and that it will commence in November 2019.
The minister had been asked why a scheme which is to become active in over a year’s time was included in this year’s budget.
On the establishment of the Cost of Disability Commission which was also announced in the budget, the minister was asked whether she had considered increasing disability payments pending the commission’s report.
Responding to the announcement the Rehab Group had said research indicated that living with a disability can impose extra costs on an individual of between €207 and €276 per week.
The Rehab statement added that it is well established that people with disabilities are one of the groups in Ireland at highest risk of poverty.
Ms Doherty responded that over the past four years all welfare recipients got an increase in core payments adding that people with disabilities, blind people and carers had had their payments restored following the cuts associated with the recent period of austerity.
But she acknowledged that there was an extra cost involved in living with a disability.
"Some UK studies (on the cost of disability) have not hit the mark," she added.
She added: "Maybe disability advocacy groups here have been asking for a cost of disability payment for years but I’ve only been here (as minister) for a year. If I’m around long enough, I’ll implement it."
Additional reporting: Joe Little
