Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

They were right then and they are right now. So what happened? Why did the Minister decide to punish families with larger numbers of children? Anyone who knows anything about raising a family knows real costs increase with three, four or five children.

Child benefit has been cut not as comprehensively as the Government wished to. I have no doubt the pressure from these benches and the general public made the Government pull back from its worst excesses but child benefit has been cut nonetheless.

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