Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the issue of child benefit. Is the Minister aware of the Central Statistics Office survey on income and living conditions which also demonstrates that the income of families fell five times more than the incomes of childless households between 2009 and 2010? It is not always the Minister's fault and we accept that. She inherited chaos but she has added to it. We also accept there is significant spend on child benefit and the other projects she mentioned - family income supplement, qualified child allowance and back to education allowance. Over the years they have prevented greater levels of food poverty and child poverty. It has been reported today that families on low incomes with three or more children are facing food poverty before any changes are made to child benefit.

The other issue grouped in these questions is the issue of access to disability allowance for 16 and 17 year olds. Does the Minister accept that if the proposal made last year to raise the age of disability allowance from 16 to 18 proceeded, the households of young people with disabilities would in fact be cut down as much as €6,000 a year because the domiciliary care allowance is substantially lower than the disability allowance? If the Minister were to follow through on her logic and consider taking disability allowance from those who are 16 and 17, we would introduce a different rate of domiciliary care allowance for those and that would be granted. Is that under serious consideration? Is domiciliary care allowance equal to that of the disability allowance for 16 and 17 year olds? If not then it is a cost-saving measure rather than a concern for children with disabilities having too much money to spend. It is not true that the disability allowance received by 16 and 17 year olds was all spent on enjoyment or misspent. In the majority of cases it is spent on their education and helping their parents ensure they stay in education rather than spent on social life as has been portrayed.

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