REWARDING work and making it easier for the long-term unemployed to find it were the key components of the Budget jobs package.
By contrast, middle-to higher-income PAYE workers are being asked to forgo tax reductions in favour of those less well off.
Overall, economic growth will create 31,000 jobs, according to the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, while employment initiatives aimed at the long-term unemployed should bring 17,000 of these back into the workforce, at least temporarily.
Many of the major employment measures in the Budget had already been signalled. As expected, the first £80 of weekly wages are to be discounted for calculating PRSI. This provision was introduced last year at £50 a week.
However the existing £140 a year tax allowance for PRSI is being abolished. Effectively better-off PAYE workers will finance gains for those on low pay.
For employers, the standard PRSI rate is being reduced from 12.2 per cent to 12 per cent. More significantly, the lower rate of employers' PRSI is being reduced from 9 per cent to 8 per cent. The pay level at which the low rate is applied has been increased, from £12,000 to £13,000.
The new measures were welcomed by the president of the Small Firms Association, Ms Lorraine Sweeney, who said they would reduce failure rates in business and combat the black economy.
She also welcomed the introduction of a new subsidy of £80 a week to be paid to employers recruiting people who have been unemployed for over three years. However, the National Youth Council of Ireland expressed concern that the subsidy might be used as a licence for employers to save on their own wage bills".
Five thousand jobs will be provided on this basis.
As expected, the Budget endorsed a number of proposals contained in the recent report of the task force on long-term unemployment. These include focusing Community Employment (CE) schemes more sharply on the long-term unemployed.
In future, people will have to be unemployed for at least a year to be eligible for CE places and a quarter of all places will go to those aged 35 or over and unemployed for at least three years.
A scheme of "work trials" is being provided for 5,000 unemployed people who are either long-term unemployed or in danger of becoming so. The trials will be with employers who are considering taking on extra staff.
A pilot scheme of 1,000 full time jobs are to be provided for three years under the CE programme. This will be to evaluate the feasibility of creating sustainable, socially useful, community work for the unemployed.
One of the most controversial schemes proposed is a work progression program me" for unemployed 18 to 19 year olds. In future, people in this age group, who are unemployed for more than six months, will be required to attend FAS or Local Employment Service offices for training and counselling in finding employment.
The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton said he believed the scheme would have "very positive" effect on young unemployed people.
Earlier proposals favoured by his Department to introduce lower rates for young unemployed people, such as those paid in Britain, appear to have been dropped. They were effectively ruled out by the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa.
In the social welfare area the number of participants in the Back to Work scheme is to be increased from 10,000 to 15 000 The Family Income Supplement is to become eligible on a wider basis to include more people in part-time employment and job shares.
Small businesses are to benefit from a new rate of Corporation Tax. Only 30 per cent tax is to be paid on the first £50,000 of profit and the standard 38 per cent on the balance.
The Business Expansion Scheme is to be retained, despite criticism. But a statutory certification scheme is to be introduced to prevent abuse.
While some business sectors whose main markets are in Britain have criticised the Budget severely, it has been given a qualified welcome by the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has also welcomed the thrust of the Budget, although it says that there should have been more PAYE concessions. Overall, the Budget can be taken as increasing the prospects of a successor to the PCW.