No commitment new proposed child benefit scheme will be included in budget

A new means-tested second-tier of child benefit aimed at taking children out of poverty is said to be “worthy of consideration” but senior Government figures offered no commitment that the proposal will be included in the upcoming budget.

The idea is contained in research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) which suggested more than 40,000 children could be lifted out of poverty by the measure.

The ESRI has estimated that introducing the payment would cost about €700 million per year.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the ESRI report on child benefit is “certainly worthy of consideration” and he said he could “absolutely guarantee that one of the themes in the budget is going to be child wellbeing and child welfare”.

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He said there will be a package aimed at reducing child poverty and there are different ways to do this including increasing wages for the low paid and improving access to third-level education for lone parents.

He told RTÉ Radio “of course there needs to be welfare changes too” but no decisions have been made.

[ Fintan O’Toole: Elevation of child poverty to national priority a genuine political breakthrough ]

Mr Varadkar said: “What the ESRI report points out today, which I think is valid, is that . . . measures targeting children in households where there is poverty . . . would give us a better return on investment than maybe giving every family an extra €5 or €10 a month, and I think they make a good case.”

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said the Government will “look at what works” and added: “In terms of income supports and transfers I’ve always been very strongly of the view about two things that work really well the IQC [increase for a qualified child payment] and the working family payment . . . Over the last three budgets the government have increased those.”

He would like to see further investment in these measures in this year’s budget.

“Obviously we look at all options and this [ESRI] report has provided new potential options for us as well.

“But I do think we focus on things we know have a proven record of reducing child poverty.”

He said the ESRI proposal is “certainly worth consideration and I’ve no doubt it will form part of the consideration of Government . . . over the next number of weeks”.

Asked where he will seek to introduce a further 25 per cent cut in childcare costs, Mr O’Gorman said he is hoping to bring forward a range of measures including cost reductions for parents.

Mr O’Gorman said he hopes to broaden the AIM [Access and Inclusion Model] scheme that supports access to early learning for children with a disability and he wants to bring childminders into the National Childcare Scheme of subsidies to help parents with costs.

[ The Irish Times view on the ESRI proposal on tackling child poverty: an idea worth pursuing ]

“It’s early in the process, but we’ll be we’ll be fighting hard as a department to deliver on those,” he said.

Asked if the Government would be prepared to spend the €700 million for a second tier of child benefit, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said: “All of these issues are budgetary decisions and we are nowhere near yet making a decision in relation to what individual measures will be.”

He said: “Supporting children, a reduction of child poverty will be a theme of the budget.

“The Taoiseach has set up a new unit in the Department of the Taoiseach to look at how we can give kids the best start in life and look at how we can reduce poverty levels amongst our young.

“So it will be a theme but the Government has not made any decisions on specific measures yet.”