Budget 2015 has provided some breathing space to children and families, the Children's Rights Alliance has said.

Responding to Tuesday's Budget, the alliance insisted that families have been disproportionately affected by previous budgets, but Budget 2015 appears to mark an end to ‘years of harsh cuts'.

It welcomed a range of measures announced in the Budget, including the €5 per child increase in Child Benefit, an extra €26 million for Tusla (the Child and Family Agency), €35 million allocated to child detention services and 1,700 new full-time posts in education, including 365 special needs assistants.

It also welcomed the 40 cent price increase in a packet of cigarettes, which it said, would help to discourage children from smoking.

However, the alliance added that while this Budget will ‘not bring families onto the streets in protest', they will not be celebrating just yet, and more action is needed to ‘lift the one in 10 children out of child poverty'.