Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I agree with Deputy Cowen. This is a low attack on the qualified child payment. It is a decrease in a social welfare rate, yet the Minister has made great play of her claim that no social welfare rate has been cut. I oppose the section on that basis alone.

I also oppose it on the basis that it targets many who are dependent on social welfare payments. Under the proposed changes, the current entitlement to the half-rate child increase is disappearing. The Minister's aim is to discontinue that entitlement. Once again, I ask the Minister to row back on this, particularly considering there was an alternative approach available. A number of people outlined the changes required in the taxation system that would allow for social welfare payments to be retained at the rate they were at and which would allow the tax system to be tweaked and changed to penalise those who have most and force them to pay the greater share of the burden which has been laid on society by the previous Administration and the economic crisis.

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