The administrative and other arrangements needed to bring about the automatic payment of child benefit in the cases cited by the Deputy have already been developed and a significant number of families have already benefited by receiving child benefit payments automatically in respect of their newly born children.
This has been made possible through developments in my Department and related developments affecting the capture and use of life event data.
The first element in the change programme underpinning these arrangements is my Department's service delivery modernisation programme which is designed to facilitate a more proactive and integrated approach to service delivery. The re-design of the child benefit computer system represents the first phase of this modernisation programme.
The second element is the modernisation of the civil registration service and, in particular, the computerisation of records of births, marriages and deaths, which is being undertaken on a joint basis by my Department and the Department of Health and Children.