Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has been urged to give the carer’s allowance to all 9,000 people on waiting lists as part of an “amnesty” to clear chronic backlogs.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to reverse the 20% reduction in the carer’s respite grant despite pleas from the opposition benches to heed the impassioned appeal of a husband caring for his ill wife to leave the grant alone.

Labour backbenchers rounded on the party’s leader and senior ministers over the long-term damage caused to the party by a series of broken promises.

Planned savings from the Government’s 19% cut to respite care will be wiped out if just 480 families give up and put their loved ones into State care.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has rushed to the defence of his Labour colleagues in Government against what he described as opportunistic attacks from Fianna Fáil over budget cuts.

Labour TD Michael McCarthy has apologised to a protester after gardaí were called to his offices in Dunmanway, Co Cork, last week.

Partly unemployed people who work on Sundays could lose dole payments under a measure to be inserted into budget legislation.

The head of one of the country’s leading maternity hospitals has warned that HSE cutbacks are putting expectant mothers’ lives at risk, following the worst official annual death rate in a decade.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said that Labour TDs have described the Budget as "a disaster for them".

Hundreds of family carers are heading to the Dáil this afternoon to voice their outrage at Budget 2013.

Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton has said that Budget 2013 is as balanced and fair as it can be.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said today that rebel Labour backbenchers knew from the start how tough the recent Budget was going to be.

The chairman of the Labour Party has called on the Government to row back on cuts to child benefit announced in Budget 2013.

The Pyrite Action Group has said the property tax announced in the Budget "adds insult to injury" for homeowners who bought affected homes during the boom.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has said his party would table a motion of no confidence in the Government next week.

About 3,500 jobs are to be cut from the health service next year.

SIPTU has said the Government can generate €125m extra for the exchequer next year through the earlier introduction of a new tax on high-value pensions.

One of the country’s biggest unions mounted pressure on the Government to abandon budget cuts that will hit the vulnerable.

In the aftermath of last year’s budget, Joan Burton was left exposed by her Cabinet colleagues in the handling of the U-turn on disability cuts.

You’re a 35-year-old married woman.

For many people €325 may not be a particularly significant sum.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn wants schools and teachers to “go that extra mile” to make up for a 15% cut in special needs teaching.

The expert group appointed by the State to examine the taxation system specifically recommended against taxing maternity benefit.

Farmers as well as social welfare recipients will face having the property tax deducted from their State payments if do they not volunteer the levy.

A leading housing charity has slammed as “unjust and inequitable” the decision by the Government to impose the local property tax on social housing organisations.

As a group of something just over 200 people, a group that would have been far larger if others were not at home minding a loved one dependent on their care, protested at Leinster House yesterday over the budget decision to cut the €1,700 annual grant for respite care by €325, the Health Service Executive was advertising for 35 “leadership coaches” to help managers with the “personal transition” promotion might impose on them.

European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton said today that the Government has no choice but to proceed with implementing the Budget.

The Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar says he does not believe there are any mistakes in the budget.

Former Labour Junior Minister Roisín Shortall believes Budget 2013 will be very damaging for the party.

Around 100 family carers will gather outside the Dáil this afternoon to protest over the cut to their respite care grant.

HSE budget woes are leaving some children confined to wheelchairs while they wait up to 20 months for special disability equipment.

There will be no turning back from measures outlined in Wednesday’s budget, the Government insisted, despite some Labour backbenchers holding out hope that tweaks can be made to avoid a public backlash.

A Garda staff association has expressed serious concern at how the force in Cork City is going to cope after it was left with just one 24-hour station for the whole city.

Many hard-pressed drug projects will not survive the latest cuts to funding following the budget, according to community groups.

The main issues causing Government TDs grief have been thrashed out in recent days but some are ‘slow burners’ and will only be felt and realised by voters in the coming weeks and months.

The Government has introduced a “deeply regressive” budget for the second year in a row, Social Justice Ireland has said.

Labour TDs and rebels within the party share a resigned view of the budget measures but some hold out hope for some type of U-turn on the more significant cuts unveiled.

Michael Noonan has defended a hike in PRSI contributions, insisting that people will benefit in the long run.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said the €325 cut to an annual grant for carers was “modest”.

Age Action has warned many older people may be forced to choose between buying medicine, food, and fuel due to the effects of the budget.

When Pat Rabbitte criticised the opposition yesterday for failing to acknowledge measures in the budget to hit high earners such as cutting tax relief for their pensions, Roisin Shortall responded with one word.

Brendan Howlin, the public expenditure minister, touted reductions to political expenses in his budget speech.

The Government’s decision to increase the Vat cash accounting threshold has been welcomed by business groups.

Chambers Ireland has urged the Government to reverse the proposal to abolish the redundancy rebate for employers, saying the move will result in further wholesale job losses.