Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The problem is that if one were to remove all the one-parent family payments, one would have to take another €3 or €4 off those on the jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit. That is where the difficulty lies.

Valid issues have been raised by the Opposition. I do not want anybody to create a world like that in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on the basis of what I said. Nobody should receive less than the basic rate. When I made reference yesterday to having a measure of disability, I was suggesting it would allow one make an extra payment to those with more severe disabilities. This would be easier to do because the numbers would not be so great and not as many issues would arise at the margin. If one were really serious about tackling this issue, it would be the way to go. We are achieving this and we will do so in the first step next week by trying to help people to find employment and retain benefits through the partial capacity Bill.

With regard to child benefit, I was asked what I have against the third child in a family. I favour the third child very much because the actual rates after the budget will be €140 for the first child and €140 for the second child. The third child will still attract a higher rate, namely €167, and the fourth child will attract a rate of €177, and so on.

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