Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I asked earlier about the report that was produced by the Department in April and given to the Minister. I was not asking the witnesses to comment on what the Government does or does not do once it receives a report, other than confirming that there have been discussions since then. In some ways, the budget changed everything in the report. One of the promises or suggestions that the Minister made was that changes in child benefit would be ring-fenced to tackle child poverty. It might have made it a bit more palatable if the money that was saved from child benefit in this year's budget cut had been redirected towards a qualified child allowance or the recognition of children under the family income supplement. That would be a mechanism without creating a two-tier child income support system. We already have such a system through child benefit, the qualified child increase and the family income supplement, without creating another payment. We do not have that luxury.

I am not necessarily asking the witnesses to comment because it is up to us to ask the Minister to examine a cost-neutral redistribution. In that way, part of a payment could be shifted to specifically target child poverty. The qualified child increase was introduced in the first place to identify those who are totally dependent on social welfare. The family income supplement identified those who are classified as working poor. Did the advisory group look at that as a model, rather than creating a two-tier system, to use existing payments while broadening payment levels or thresholds?