Michael Noonan heralded Budget 2016 as "no more boom and bust", while Brendan Howlin heralded this as "the end of spending cuts".

From USC cuts to extra gardaí and teachers, there's a lot to discuss in Budget 2016. Here are the top 10 points from this afternoon's speeches in the Dáíl.

Tax measures - "an additional week's wages in the pocket of each worker"

Property Tax

• Property tax frozen until 2019

USC

• USC changes bring marginal tax rate to 49.5% for all earners under €70,044
• USC Rates to be cut from 1.5% to 1%, from 3.5% to 3%, from 7% to 5.5%
• Around 42,500 workers will be removed from paying USC completely
• From January 1, USC entry threshold increases from 12,012 euro to 13,000

Excise

• Increase of 50c in price of 20 cigarettes. This was the solitary tax increase in the Budget.

Capital gains tax

• New capital gains tax rate of 20% is being introduced for those who dispose of all or part of a business up to limit of €1m.

PRSI

• PRSI changes for the lower paid, meaning more net cash for those on the minimum wage - change of bands on employer's PRSI from €356 to €376.

Public Expenditure - "the end of spending cuts"

Childcare

• Free childcare from age three to five and a half, or until start of primary school
• 8,000 childcare places to support parents in low paid employment
• €3m being provided to develop afterschool in school buildings.
• Child Benefit to go up by €5 to €140 next year
• GP care to be extended to under 12s next year (subject to negotiation with doctor representatives)

Public Services

• Extra 600 Gardai to be recruited in 2016
• Over 2000 teaching positions
• €13.2bn for delivery of health services next year – restores resoucres of health services to pre-crisis level

Paternity leave

• Statutory paternity leave of two weeks

Housing

• NAMA to deliver 20,000 residential homes by 2020 - 90% of these in Dublin at cost of €4.5bn
• Extra €69m to allow local authorities secure accommodation for extra 14,000 households

Social welfare

• Restoring value of respite care grant to €1,700
• The welfare Christmas bonus restored to 75% of former total

Here's our political correspondent, Paraic Gallagher's, brief of the budget: