Two-income family is €5 a week better off

MARRIED: After a quick calculation Mr George Murphy estimates that he and his wife will be around €5 better off per week after yesterday's Budget.

MARRIED: "But anything they have given to us they will pretty much get back straight away," he said.

"I'm a clerical officer in the Civil Service and for people like me this Budget is just another kick in the teeth. It's the same old same old".

Mr Murphy and his wife are a two-income family. They have three children, two of whom are working with the other to sit the Leaving Cert next year.

He, his wife and his eldest daughter all have credit cards, which means the family will be subjected three times to the increase on the credit card tax from €18 to €40.

"I had heard that they were going to put up the pint, but they left that alone, so I suppose you have to be grateful for that. My dad is a pensioner, so I guess he'll be happy with the increase in the pension," Mr Murphy said.

"But for people like me who are not high earners it seems that this Budget has given us very little."

Mr Murphy's eldest daughter is returning from the UK after Christmas to settle with her partner in Dublin. He believes the Budget has offered them, and other young couples, very little .

"There has been some mortgage relief to compensate for the scrapping of the first-time buyers' grant, but really with the way house prices have gone it's not going to make a lot of difference".