Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is beneath the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in particular, to draw down a remark like that. It is not in keeping with his or his family's tradition and I ask the Taoiseach to end the matter in his reply.

By calling this a top-up payment, the Government has landed in its current difficulties. Nobody is moaning and groaning and, as I said, it is not racist to ask a legitimate question about legitimate taxpayers' money going towards the child care costs of children in other countries. The Taoiseach is now indicating that the Government has some discretion in this matter. If he had linked this to child care costs here, which was his intention, he could have done it by having a vouched system for bona fide child care facilities and their costs in Ireland.

I understand it was claimed last night on the nine o'clock news that 25% of the 100,000 Polish people resident here have children in Poland. What is the cost, in the Government's calculation, of that? Half an hour ago, the Taoiseach informed me that, in child benefit cases, we would be talking about fewer than 2,000. I do not know what figures his assumptions were based on in the first place. Can he tell me whether there is a figure at which a review of this would be triggered? Will that be 1,000, 2,000, 10,000 or 50,000 children living outside Ireland? If the Government has discretion, why does it not focus its resources on children of all nationalities living here, as distinct from what it has now done?

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