Madam, - The talk of cutting child benefit raises fundamental questions about the kind of society we want.
Do we want to favour those who do not have children over those who do?
With childcare costs at €1,000 per month in Dublin, do we want to force those women who are in paid employment to give up that paid work because they cannot afford to pay for childcare?
Is the fact that child benefit is paid to the mother, who is still typically seen as the person responsible for paying for childcare, at all relevant to those wishing to cut it?
We know that channelling money through the mother increases the likelihood that it will be spent on the children - is that important in a society where child poverty is almost certainly likely to increase?
The State has long given farmers tax relief on payments to farm managers, but it has never provided tax relief on childcare costs.
Why? On the other hand, this Government's active disinterest in gender equality has been clearly demonstrated over the years - and was reflected in the cut of 42 per cent in the Equality Authority's budget.
The argument that it would be fairer to withdraw child benefit from well-off families begs the question as to why such families should not simply be taxed at a higher rate.
Doing this would promote greater social equality without disadvantaging children since we know that monies allocated to the mother are most likely to be spent on children.
But is this the kind of society that we want? - Yours, etc,
Prof PAT O'CONNOR,
Department of Sociology
and Social Policy,
University of Limerick.