Ms Niamh Kelly:

I understand the question but it is a similar point. We support that it is paid until a child reaches the age of 18 and we believe the same should be true for the child benefit payment. It is a protected payment. It is not means tested or taxable. It should be for the course of a childhood rather than linked to the educational attainment of the young person. It echoes the changes to the one-parent family payment, with fairly arbitrary age requirements put on payments that actually do not reflect the reality for families. Often they disproportionately affect the lowest-income families. We definitely support what the Senator is saying in that it should be available to all children under the age of 18. It is not something on which we have been campaigning. It does not come up a lot for us in our services but it is certainly something we would support.