Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The advisory group is examining the issue of in-work supports for families with children. Although the group's report is often referred to solely in the context of child benefit, it actually considered all payments made to families with children. The total amount paid in benefits is almost €3 billion, of which child benefit is €2 billion. One of the reasons the group is considering in-work supports is precisely to find out why more people do not avail of them and whether changes can be introduced to make it easier for both employee and employer to make use of the scheme.

In regard to advertising, the Department's website has received approximately 6 million hits since its revamp. We intend to place information on the FIS scheme on the website's revolving banner in order to draw attention to it. I agree with the Deputy that it is an excellent scheme which offers a significant boost in income for families with children. It is well known to a significant number of public service employees, such as those who work on a part-time basis in the HSE, but in other workplaces it does not seem to attract the number of applications one would expect.

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