Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

We are considering rerunning the FIS campaign, which we ran for one week. It is clear from the thousands of people who immediately called the helpline and the numbers that escalated in the week or two after the advertising campaign that it had a dramatic effect. I gave the Deputies the percentage take-up and the ESRI statistics, and it is clear that we have a distance to travel. The increased thresholds would have brought a new tranche of people in and would account for some of the increase. I have not examined the New Zealand system but if the Deputy wants me to I will. We can consider writing to those in receipt of child benefit. There is no difficulty circularising our database on such issues.

One area where we can do more work is in paying FIS through the tax system. That was examined by a group set up under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and was chaired by the Department of Finance. It examined this matter in some detail and the number of families eligible for FIS is not directly comparable with the income statistics compiled by the Revenue Commissioners for a number of reasons, including that the Revenue data do not generally take into account the number of hours worked, the number of children in a family and its social welfare income, which might not be taxed but would be taken into account for FIS. That group concluded that FIS should continue to be paid through the social welfare system and not through the tax system. It is some time since that was done and I would like to look at it again because the Revenue is bound to finesse its data to the point where it can be of some assistance to us.

I agree with Deputies who say FIS was a good scheme. Deputy Catherine Murphy pointed this out and all Deputies agree. It is a significant figure. Taking the example of a two-parent family with two children in which one parent works, if the gross earnings of the family amount to €20,000 the FIS would be €4,233. Child benefit would be €3,600, if both children are under six years the early child care supplement would come to €2,000 and the back-to-school allowance would be €240. An individual with two children, on an income of €20,000, will have further welfare top-ups of €10,000, giving a net disposable income of €30,000. There are many such examples and the figures bear no resemblance to those of many years ago. That shows how critical is family income supplement. Of the extra €10,000 a person on an income of €20,000 gets, €4,000 is made up of FIS and €3,600 comes from child benefit if the couple has two children. I hope to expand this area. FIS has great possibilities in the assault on child poverty.

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