Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 5 Feb 2015

Vol. 866 No. 3

Other Questions

Job Initiatives

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Ceist:

5. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the roll-out of the Gateway scheme; if she will provide a breakdown of the numbers engaged in the different types of work covered by the scheme and the gender profile of participants; and her views on whether the scheme, by compelling vulnerable citizens in receipt of social welfare to work for local authorities, is in breach of both the European Convention on Human Rights and the ILO C029 Forced Labour Convention. [5032/15]

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

I wish to ask the Minister of State for an update on the Gateway scheme given that it was in breach of both the European Convention on Human Rights and the ILO C029 Forced Labour Convention as it compelled vulnerable citizens on social welfare to work for local authorities. What changes have been made or are intended to be made in the rolling out of the scheme?

Deputy Kevin Humphreys

It is not in breach of any of the conventions the Deputy has outlined, and he knows that very well. The best way to assist people who are distant from the workforce is to bring them back into employment. Several schemes that have been run by the Department of Social Protection have helped people immensely in returning to employment.

More than €1 billion is available in 2015 for employment and education supports for jobseekers and other welfare recipients across a number of schemes. Funding of the order of €22.4 million is being provided in the Department’s Vote in 2015 to cover placements under the Gateway scheme. At the end of January, 1,781 persons were employed by county and city councils. Of these, 85% are male and 15% are female. While a broad variety of work is provided by the councils, the majority of positions identified as being suitable for Gateway placements relate to services of an environmental or outdoor nature. A breakdown of the types of work being done illustrates this. Just under one third of participants are currently engaged in caretaking and the upkeep and repair of facilities, such as beaches, housing, and sports and community facilities. Roughly one quarter are employed in tourism and village and urban upkeep. More than one fifth of participants are employed on the development and maintenance of walks, leisure trails and heritage projects, including cemeteries and parks. Around 13% of participants are involved in supporting council administration and related services, and 5% are involved in the upkeep of roadways, with around 4% covering waste management. Gateway, Tús and other community schemes are designed to meet a range of objectives for the broader community and individual jobseekers.

It is unfortunate that the Deputy is not looking at the positives of the Gateway scheme. I have taken the time to meet Gateway participants and to listen to their stories, which are very enlightening and, to some degree, uplifting. The participants tell me about how long they have been out of the workforce, the opportunity and hope the scheme has given them, the network they have created and the friends they have made.

Already, participants are exiting the Gateway scheme into employment. The Deputy should take the time to talk to the participants. He may be very much surprised by their response. They are contributing to their communities and derive from this a sense of pride and fulfilment. Before being too negative about this, the Deputy should talk to some of the people involved in the scheme and working under it daily.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

I have talked to them. If the Minister of State and Minister had listened to my criticism of the Gateway scheme, they would have learned there is no proper training or structure to it. I have always argued that a model similar to the community employment model should have been used. It would have allowed somebody to come out the other end with a qualification or achievement that can be put on a CV, rather than requiring him to say he spent two years pulling weeds, filling sandbags or cutting hedges. The scheme jobs are specifically set up to displace local authority staff.

I have come across two changes, which are welcome if they have been implemented. I saw a letter from an assistant principal officer in the Department to a council official that indicated a number of changes. It stated that, in the event that a jobseeker does not wish to participate in Gateway, the Department is committed to finding other suitable activation measures or identifying whether other supports are more appropriate. Will the Department confirm that this means the threat of the reduction or withdrawal of payment for refusing to participate on Gateway has been lifted?

The second change is one that I had encouraged from the start, which confirms I have not been negative, as the Minister of State has alleged. The change involves the addition of a voluntary application process. If this applies, can it be extended to the Tús programme. I also have problems with this programme but I have not been totally negative because of its benefits, sometimes to the community. I have always argued there needs to be a training grant given in all of the schemes, as in the CE scheme.

Deputy Kevin Humphreys

Under Gateway, there is already self-referral. I can confirm this is happening, probably as a result of the number of parliamentary questions from Members of the House.

With regard to Tús, I will shortly be announcing self-referral, with the relevant proportion being approximately 10% in the first instance. Again, this is a result of demand.

On the question about Gateway, a sum of money is already provided by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to local authorities. I do not have the exact figure to hand but it is approximately €600. If the Deputy wishes, I can clarify it. I am just speaking off the top of my head so do not want to be held to the exact figure.

I know from the local authorities I have visited and from reports that local authorities provide a range of training initiatives before employees come on site. They cover health and safety, HAP, first aid, etc. In the authority I visited in Swords, a variety of training options were given before the Gateway employees came on site.

It is important to realise the majority of local authorities that have bought into this and the local authorities I have visited, whose CEOs I have talked to about this matter, have opened up a wide range of internal training opportunities. They treat the Gateway workers as equals. The scheme has been operating well only where there has been full engagement with the trade union and assistance from the trade union movement to ensure there is no displacement of local authority workers.

Some of the most successful schemes across the country, from Mayo to Dublin and down to Limerick, and certainly the initiatives in Fingal are excellent. They have allowed many people to reconnect with the workforce. I acknowledge the Deputy is as committed to getting as many people back to work as any other.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

I will be brief because my point follows on from what the Minister of State is saying. Is he aware that some senior council officials have said it is their intention to use Gateway participants instead of recruiting staff, even with the recruitment embargo lifted? Does he agree that the Gateway scheme should never be a scheme to displace council staff and other full-time employees, and that a message in this regard should go out to council officials who intend to use or abuse the Gateway scheme to replace staff to do certain work?

Deputy Kevin Humphreys

I am not aware of any senior council officials who have said that. I would very much welcome it if the Deputy drew my attention to the local authorities to which he is referring. He knows from his community, which is similar to mine, that the Gateway scheme provides an opportunity to the long-term unemployed to reconnect with the workforce. If the Deputy has a specific allegation about a specific local authority that has made the alleged statements on the scheme, I would welcome it if he brought it to my attention.

Water Conservation Grant

Catherine Murphy

Ceist:

6. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the cost to her Department of administering the water conservation grant; the number of staff who have been taken on or it is intended are to be taken on; the total supplementary funding sought in relation to administering the scheme; the anticipated transaction costs of handling the various methods by which the grant shall be awarded; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4980/15]

Deputy Catherine Murphy

This relates to the conservation grant the Department of Social Protection will have responsibility for paying. What impact will it have on the Department's resources and will it affect other services relating to its core function?

Deputy Joan Burton

The Department of Social Protection will administer, on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, a €100 water conservation grant for households that complete a valid response to Irish Water's customer registration process. The grant will be paid to registered householders annually in respect of their primary dwellings. The first payment is to be made in September and payments will be made in each of the following years up to and including 2018.

My Department is in consultation with the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government and Public Expenditure and Reform on the staffing and funding needed to administer the scheme. The administration and payment of the grant comprise a significant project for my Department, as it will require the development and implementation of IT systems and various customer support and communications services. The Department is carrying out a scoping exercise to explore the most effective and efficient approach to its implementation. This will include estimates of the resources required to undertake the initial work involved and the ongoing administration of the grant.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

It is clear that the announcement was made without that scoping exercise having been done. Not having an indication at this point of the staffing requirements is concerning. According to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, last December, an estimated 1.3 million households of the 1.65 million eligible would apply for the water conservation grant. If this process is not completed properly, other services could easily be impacted on. The Tánaiste is shaking her head. I will not say there have not been improvements in some payments, as there have been, but transitioning from a domiciliary care allowance payment to a longer term payment or applying for carer's allowance can take nine months and there are high levels of refusal, although more than 50% of those refused have their applications granted on appeal. If the grant will impact on such persons, we should all be concerned. Given the fact that the announcement has been made, being unable to provide even an estimate of the number of staff required or the transaction costs involved is surprising.

Deputy Joan Burton

The Department has put a project team in place to engage in a scoping exercise in respect of the business development structures and so on that will be required to put in place the process that will ensure the efficient delivery of an application and payment system for the grant, including associated consumer communications and support services. That work is ongoing. Assessing the resource requirements for new initiatives is a routine feature of what my Department does in its primary work. The Department makes approximately 85 million payments per year across a wide range of schemes and a large part of its job involves paying people efficiently and on time.

The Deputy will acknowledge that changes have been made. We have discussed them frequently, for example, changes to IT platforms and so on that have impacted on waiting times in the application processes for domiciliary care allowance, family income supplement, etc. Processing times are far faster than they used to be and the time taken to process appeals has been reduced. While we must still improve, the Deputy will acknowledge that the improvements made have been significant.

The water conservation grant will not impact on the wide range of other services and payments provided by the Department for its customers, but we must work out a detailed business plan for its implementation. We will be paying the grant on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. However, given the fact that we already make 85 million payments per year, I am confident that we will be able to give people a good standard of service in this regard.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

There is nothing routine about this payment which has nothing to do with social protection or water conservation. It has everything to do with creative accounting and Irish Water being able to satisfy the EUROSTAT test by being able to issue bills, while rebates will be provided by another Department and, as such, will not be counted in the test. It is a disgrace that we will load additional requirements onto the Department of Social Protection which should only be concerned with social protection issues. Does the Tánaiste even have an indication of the number of staff that will be required or the cost involved? She would not have made a submission to the other two Departments had she not believed there would be costs involved. What was sought in that submission?

Deputy Joan Burton

When the Deputy referred to the fuel allowance and the ESB-----

Deputy Catherine Murphy

What?

Deputy Joan Burton

-----in a certain sense she answered her own question. The ESB is an independent company-----

Deputy Catherine Murphy

I never opened my mouth about the ESB.

Deputy Joan Burton

-----that borrows significantly on national and international markets to finance considerable capital projects around the country. The Department of Social Protection pays a fuel allowance to a large number of people on long-term social welfare incomes, but this is not factored into the ESB's accounts.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

What is the Tánaiste talking about?

Deputy Joan Burton

In the first part of her question the Deputy asked about the purpose of the conservation grant. Her comparison with the fuel allowance was good. It is exactly like the fuel allowance and will not be-----

Deputy Catherine Murphy

I did not make a comparison. To whom was the Tánaiste listening?

An Ceann Comhairle

Please, Deputy.

Deputy Joan Burton

The fuel allowance provides good assistance for persons on long-term social welfare incomes.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

The Tánaiste is unbelievable.

Deputy Joan Burton

Similarly, the water conservation grant which will be paid to qualifying households at the rate of €100 per year will be paid to households to assist them in conserving water and making minor repairs, for example, to fix leaking cisterns or dripping taps, which would push up their water consumption rates. That is what it is about.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

A first-fix policy.

Deputy Joan Burton

Originally, it was going to be done through a social welfare payment and tax arrangement-----

An Ceann Comhairle

I am sorry, but we must move on.

Deputy Joan Burton

-----but it is much better to do it on the basis of a universal payment to qualifying households. I am confident that we will be able to deliver the payment which will start in September. We must rely on the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, on behalf of which we are doing this. That is why we have had discussions with it.

Deputy Catherine Murphy

The Tánaiste did not answer the question, which is incredibly frustrating. I asked just one question, to which she did not even give an answer about the estimated amounts for which her Department had applied.

Deputy Joan Burton

We are involved in discussions on it. I gave the Deputy the honest answer.

Social Welfare Benefits

Ruth Coppinger

Ceist:

7. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will reverse the decision to transfer single parents who are carers from receipt of the full one-parent family payment and half carer's allowance to full carer's allowance once their youngest children reach the age of seven years. [4966/15]

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Will the Tánaiste reverse the cuts for single parents whose children are over seven years of age or acknowledge that the promise she made in 2012 to introduce such measures only if Scandinavian-style child care services were available has been broken? Will she acknowledge that the cuts will increase poverty among lone parents, 63% of whom are living in deprivation? Does she believe that, unlike other children in the State, their children who are over seven years of age can look after themselves?

Deputy Joan Burton

We had a detailed discussion on this issue in dealing with a prior question. People are entering a transitional period in that, for a further six or seven years, they will move to jobseeker's transitional payments. However, the Deputy was not present for that discussion.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

I watched it.

Deputy Joan Burton

The Deputy should bear in mind that the move to a transitional payment is in respect of children up to 13 years of age.

Some 69,884 lone parents are being supported under the one-parent family payment scheme, at an estimated cost to the Department of Social Protection and taxpayers of approximately €607 million in 2015.

When introducing the one-parent family payment scheme age change reforms in 2012, a special provision was included for recipients who are claiming the domiciliary care allowance for a disabled child aged under 16 years. This special provision ensures that lone parents who care for a child with a disability qualifying for the domiciliary care allowance will continue to receive support until that child reaches the age of 16 years and can apply for the disability allowance in their own right. As a result of this provision 1,650 lone parents will not be affected by the next phase of the one-parent family payment age reforms, which is due to take effect in July.

It is expected that on foot of the final phase of one-parent family payment scheme age reforms, another cohort of recipients who are in receipt of the half-rate carer’s allowance, as they are caring for another person, namely, an adult or a child aged 16 years or over, may be affected by the July changes. I am therefore working with my officials in examining the position of these lone parents and the potential impact of the July change. I expect those deliberations will conclude in the coming weeks. In this regard, Deputies will recall that before Christmas I reviewed the reduction to the income disregard for lone parents due to be introduced last January and in January 2016. In order to maintain the existing incentive for employment, I brought forward provisions to maintain the level of disregard at 2014 levels.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Does the Tánaiste agree that this cut is one of a list of many and that it is now part of a pattern of broken promises to women, in particular, who make up the majority of single parents? She has slashed child benefit, rent supplement and now she is forcing parents with children over seven onto jobseeker's allowance. It will mean cuts of €57 to €86 a week for people who do not have access to child care. In 2012, the Tánaiste said she would not bring this in unless we had child care provision similar to that in Scandinavia. I think she will agree that we do not have that. Single-parent families are the biggest group in poverty. According to the CSO survey, 63% are in deprivation. The organisation OPEN has said that they live in constant fear of an energy bill or homelessness. We might as well reopen the mother and baby homes and have done with it, because the Tánaiste is forcing people-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Will the Deputy please put her question? The time is up.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

-----not to have any choice about being able to bring up children in lone parent situations.

Deputy Joan Burton

The majority of lone parents are not in work.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

They were before the Tánaiste's cuts.

Deputy Joan Burton

There is absolutely no change in their payments. The reason the changes are being brought in is to give parents, when their child reaches seven years of age, a six-year transition period to enable them, in particular, to become involved in education or training with a view to being able get employment when their children are older and in second level education, because the best route out of poverty is for somebody to get employment. I reiterate that there is no impact on the vast majority of lone parents who have family caring commitments to their children and are caring for their children on a full-time basis. Parents tell me all the time that they would like to be able to go back to work but to do that they need, in particular, to be able to get education and training and then get a better-paying job. That has the single biggest impact in terms of improving their family income situation and the situation for their children. That is the purpose of the changes, it is to make things better for people.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Does the Tánaiste ever wonder why she got the reception she did in Jobstown? Does she ever wonder why people sat in front of her car? The reason they did so is that it is one of the most deprived areas of the country and she is seen by people as the Marie Antoinette of this Government.

An Ceann Comhairle

Will the Deputy put her question?

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

The one difference between her and Marie Antoinette is that Marie Antoinette did not make any promises. She was not elected on a platform of not cutting child benefit and of being in favour of women's rights. The Tánaiste has broken every single promise to families in this country.

An Ceann Comhairle

This is Question Time. The Deputy should put her question.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

In particular, she has stuck the knife into the backs of lone parents with this cut. Then she wonders why people around the country are angry and are not throwing red carpets under her feet. She has reduced people to going to soup kitchens. The biggest single group going to soup kitchens is single parents.

An Ceann Comhairle

This is Question Time. The Deputy should put her supplementary question.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Would the Tánaiste accept that all this is being done in the interest of making cuts to meet targets set by the troika - the EU, the IMF and the ECB - in aid of the bondholders? That is why she is getting the reception she is getting in communities. She can expect much more of it if she keeps this up.

Deputy Joan Burton

Deputy Coppinger's colleague was one of the principal organisers of the event in Jobstown.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

He was not. People do not like the Tánaiste.

Deputy Joan Burton

The people who organised that event cast a slur on the very good people of Jobstown.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

The Tánaiste slurred them.

Deputy Joan Burton

This was an event to celebrate-----

An Ceann Comhairle

We are dealing with Question Time here.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

The Tánaiste slurred them.

Deputy Joan Burton

-----the success of people from the local community-----

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

They did not want the Tánaiste there in the first place.

An Ceann Comhairle

Could the Tánaiste just reply to the supplementary question?

Deputy Joan Burton

-----including a number of lone parents, who were graduating with a degree. Graduating with a degree and going to college might mean nothing to the Deputy, but I come from a very strong working class background.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Tánaiste is way over time on this question.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Here we go. Listen to the violins. The Tánaiste does not come from a working class background. She should stop lecturing us.

Deputy Joan Burton

Actually, a lone parent-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Would Deputy Coppinger please resume her seat and stay quiet? There are other Deputies waiting to get their questions answered.

Deputy Ruth Coppinger

Yes. The Tánaiste should answer them.

Deputy Joan Burton

Deputy Coppinger can defend-----

An Ceann Comhairle

We are way over time. The Tánaiste is now two minutes over time on this question.

Deputy Joan Burton

I am convinced that helping lone parents into education and training and helping them get a job, and the Jobstown-----

An Ceann Comhairle

Would the Tánaiste please adhere to the Chair?

Deputy Joan Burton

The Jobstown graduation was to celebrate that, for people from the community. That is the right approach.

An Ceann Comhairle

There are other Deputies here, waiting for their questions.

Child Benefit Administration

Denis Naughten

Ceist:

8. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection her plans to address the persistent control savings associated with child benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4716/15]

Deputy Denis Naughten

Every year, the Department of Social Protection staff in Carrick-on-Shannon very effectively identify between €70 million and €80 million in control savings under the child benefit scheme. Is there not something fundamentally wrong when 10% of the control savings on an annual basis are consistently identified as relating to large-scale fraud, overpayments or errors within the scheme?

Deputy Joan Burton

Child benefit is a payment to parents for the support of their children. It is paid to some 615,000 families in respect of 1.18 million children, with an expenditure of approximately €1.9 billion in 2014. This payment, I am happy to say, increased by €5, to €135 per month, with effect from January 2015. Child benefit will remain a universal payment because of its crucial importance to families, mothers in particular, but also fathers who are parenting their children alone, and I intend to increase it again in the budget later this year.

Safeguarding the child benefit budget is a priority and in this regard the Department has taken a very strong approach to ensuring that it is only paid to eligible families. A policy of issuing continuing eligibility certificates to parents commenced in 2008 and is still in operation. The control policy for the scheme is continually reviewed to ensure that the controls in place to prevent the kind of fraud and abuse the Deputy has referred to continue to be effective and relevant.

As a result of these reviews, additional enhanced and updated control measures are devised and implemented.

Control savings represent the amount of money that would have to be spent in future if the control work was not undertaken. They do not include cases of departmental or clerical error or where a customer voluntarily informs the Department of changes to his or her means or circumstances which results in a change to the rate of payment.

The total savings from child benefit control activity was €74 million in 2013. The Department undertook approximately 400,000 continuing eligibility reviews of child benefit customers in 2014. This control activity generated some €70 million in savings in respect of expenditure that would otherwise have occurred. The level of savings from this exercise has fallen in recent years owing to the effectiveness of the controls in the child benefit scheme. While I am satisfied that the control system is good, the systems are continually reviewed and upgraded as information technology develops.

Deputy Denis Naughten

In each of the past five years, between €70 million and €80 million has been generated in control savings in the child benefit scheme. Individuals associated with the troika recently questioned the universal character of the child benefit payment. The payment should remain universal, although it could be paid in a much more effective manner. The Departments of Education and Skills and Social Protection have linked up in respect of enrolment data for pupils in schools. However, the Department of Social Protection continues to issue 600,000 letters per annum to child benefit recipients, creating a requirement for enough paper to wallpaper the pitch of Croke Park two and a half times, because it is not linked up with the National Educational Welfare Board. Will the Minister ensure such a link is established? One of the conditions for receiving child benefit is that the child for whom it is paid must be attending school. This condition is not regularly enforced.

Deputy Joan Burton

I am not sure the Deputy's final point is correct. On the issue of whether a child attends school or receives home schooling, the Constitution provides that parents have a significant role in decisions regarding their children. The legislation must reflect the constitutional rights of all citizens.

The good news I have for the Deputy is that the troika left town some time ago. I note a spokesperson for the International Monetary Fund, one of the members of the troika, commented recently on child benefit. There are differences of opinion on this payment. For instance, in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, child benefit is not paid to any family with an income in excess of £65,000 and, where it is paid, it may be clawed back in tax reductions. I believe in a universal child benefit payment. All of the studies on poverty and so forth show it is highly effective in ensuring that the money goes to the caring parent, which is of most benefit to the child.

An Ceann Comhairle

I must ask the Tánaiste to conclude because we are over time.

Deputy Joan Burton

Control checks are important and play a significant role in cases where people are changing residence or moving to another country.

Deputy Denis Naughten

The problem is that if the Departments of Education and Skills and Social Protection and the National Educational Welfare Board were linked up, many more abuses in the system would be identified and much greater savings secured. This link should be established once for all to eliminate the annual control savings. The reason I raise this matter is that teachers tell me that some parents lack the motivation to ensure their children attend school. The National Educational Welfare Board has published details of cases involving parents who had to be dragged through the courts and fined to persuade them to ensure their children attended school. Surely it would make more sense to threaten such parents with the withdrawal of child benefit, rather than spending 12 months dragging them through the courts and having children lose out on a year's education to achieve the same objective.

Deputy Joan Burton

The Deputy is suggesting that the payment of child benefit should be entirely conditional on a child attending school.

Deputy Denis Naughten

That is the law.

Deputy Joan Burton

The law requires children to receive an appropriate education. For almost all children, this is provided in a school environment but, as the Deputy is aware, there are families who are dedicated to home schooling.

Deputy Denis Naughten

Naturally, there will be exceptions.

Deputy Joan Burton

We have to allow for parental choice.

Deputy Denis Naughten

The Minister is distracting from the issue.

Deputy Joan Burton

As Deputies will be aware from media reports, the Department of Education and Skills has undertaken to use personal public service numbers, PPSN, for children at primary level, as is already the case at second and third level. The Departments of Education and Skills and Social Protection are co-operating on mapping the location of children for the purpose of planning new schools. When the project is completed there may be scope for additional co-operation, subject to data protection controls.

Social Welfare Code

Lucinda Creighton

Ceist:

9. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection in view of the International Monetary Fund's recent comments calling on the Government to consider taxing or means testing social protection payments such as child benefit, if she has discussed these matters with the IMF delegation; if she supports the recommendations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4968/15]

An Ceann Comhairle

As only one minute of Question Time remains, Deputy Creighton, who has tabled the next question, may wish to forego her introduction and allow the Minister to make a brief reply.

Deputy Joan Burton

As only a short time remains, I will not read out the reply. As I indicated in answer to the previous question, child benefit is a major payment that is made to more than 600,000 families in respect of 1.2 million children at an annual cost of €1.9 billion.

Deputy Lucinda Creighton

I am curious to ascertain whether the Minister had any specific engagement with the International Monetary Fund and whether any detailed discussions have taken place on the potential for taxing or means-testing child benefit.

Deputy Joan Burton

As I pointed out to Deputy Naughten, it is my view that child benefit should be universal payment. It is one of the few universal payments in our social welfare system. All of our research shows that the payment goes directly to the caring parent who is, for the most part, the mother, and is very well spent on children. I do not have any proposals to tax the payment.

I am aware of the discussions to which the Deputy refers. To assist families on social welfare, we are focused on helping parents, whether in one-parent or two-parent households, to engage in education and training and ultimately enter employment as the best route to supporting children out of poverty. At this time and, even more so, during the recession, the cashflow of child benefit on to the household kitchen table has been incredibly important in supporting families with children. The current system is the best way of giving a package of direct cash supports to families who have children.

Written Answers follow Adjournment.