Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Family and child income support payments both assist parents in contributing to the costs associated with raising children and play an important role in the objective of reducing child poverty. The Government is conscious that these payments are an important source of income for all families, particularly during a time of recession and unemployment. A value for money review of child income support policies and associated programmes was published by my Department in November 2010. The review covered policy around child benefit, qualified child increases and the family income supplement payments, as well as aspects of some other child-related payments. My Department is also undertaking some follow-up work, including a consultation seminar held yesterday with interest groups on the review which gathered the views of stakeholders as to the future direction of policy on child income supports. Creating jobs and tackling poverty are two of the key challenges we face. It is essential that our tax and social protection systems play their part in addressing these problems. As we stressed in the preamble to our programme for Government, in order to address the very substantial problems that we face, it is essential that new ways, new approaches and new thinking will form the constant backdrop to the work of the Government. For this reason the Government will seek to benefit from the expertise of a commission on tax and social welfare that will consider a number of issues arising out of the operation of the tax and social welfare systems. The Government will consider the scope of the commission's work and the practical arrangements around its operation and an announcement will be made on this as soon as possible.

The Government is committed to tackling Ireland's economic crisis in a way that is fair, balanced, and which recognises the need for social solidarity. In addressing all aspects of the public finances, it will seek to ensure that resources are allocated fairly and that less well-off families are protected in so far as possible. Decisions on the child benefit payment rate are a matter to be decided in a budgetary context.

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