Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Department of the Taoiseach requested the NESC to prepare that work and it goes back three or four years. I referred in my reply to an additional year of work under Towards 2016 but I am satisfied that an additional €60 million went towards a child benefit form of payment, the child dependant allowance, the first time that happened since 1994. The House asked for that and it will have a direct impact because the money went directly to the one third of children on the lowest incomes.

Last year we debated the timing of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. I recall the advice at the time being that we should not bring it back too much but Deputies opposite made a case for a week or two. It might not, however, be a good idea to make it available towards the summer. It is paid from 1 September and the request was to bring it back to August.

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