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Child Benefit Payments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2013

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Questions (378)

Michael Lowry

Question:

378. Deputy Michael Lowry asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will make her intentions clear regarding the future of child benefit; if child benefit will be cut in order to fund additional free preschool care; if her attention has been drawn to the distress, fear and upset being caused as a result of these reports; if her attention has been drawn to the importance of child benefit in assisting families in keeping their heads above water; if she will give an assurance that child benefit will not be cut any further; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23066/13]

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Written answers

Child benefit is a universal payment that assists parents with the cost of raising children and it contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The estimated expenditure on child benefit in 2013 is around €1.9 billion and it is currently paid to around 611,000 families in respect of some 1.16 million children.

The Government is conscious that child benefit, as a universal payment, can be an important source of income for all families, especially during a time of recession and high unemployment. The social protection system also provides assistance to low income families with children through the payment of qualified child increases on primary social welfare payments and through the family income supplement payment. Both of these provide a level of assistance which is directly or indirectly linked with a household’s income situation.

Achieving a better design of the overall system of child income supports, including child benefit, raises complex issues about the effectiveness and the efficiency of the full range of income supports currently provided to families and their children. In this context and in line with a commitment in the Programme for Government, I established an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare, which has been tasked with recommending cost-effective solutions as to how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes can be achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes. The Advisory Group prioritised the area of family and child income supports and its report on this issue was published in February.

This report makes important recommendations on how child benefit could be maintained as a universal payment while reforming the current system of child and family income supports so as to better target those who need these supports most. Given the range of complex issues involved, including fiscal, operational and legal considerations, as well as the implications for reforms in terms of child poverty and employment incentive outcomes, the Government has made no decision at this time on the core recommendations of the report. It is the Government’s intention that the report will now contribute to the policy debate on the matter. In considering the proposals to reform the structure of child and family income support payments, including the balance between income supports and services, such as childcare, I expect that Government will also take into account further work by the Advisory Group on the issue of social protection and taxation supports for working age persons and more general developments in the budgetary and fiscal situation.

The provision of childcare services, such as those supported by the Early Childhood Care and Education scheme, is primarily a policy matter for my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald T.D. However, any proposal to fund additional childcare services from cuts to the child benefit scheme would require a Government decision within an overall budgetary context on which no indications can be given at the present time.

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