Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Social Protection will spend approximately €19.6 billion on income support payments in 2014. Core weekly payment rates have been fully maintained over the past three years in line with the programme for Government. Child benefit is paid for almost 1.2 million children in over 600,000 families, with an estimated expenditure of €1.9 billion in 2014. Income support payments play a major role in reducing poverty. CSO data show that in 2012, income supports and other social transfers reduced the at risk of poverty rate from 50.3% to 16.5%, thereby lifting one third of the population out of relative poverty. This represents a poverty reduction effect of 67.2%. Ireland is among the best performing EU countries in reducing poverty through social transfers.

Child benefit assists all parents with the costs associated with raising children and is a key component of income support for children at risk of poverty. Child benefit is complemented by targeted payments such as qualified child increases at just under €30 per week per child, back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and family income supplement to support low income families.

The Statement of Government Priorities 2014–2016, which we announced last Friday, contains a commitment to introduce measures in budget 2015 to assist low-income families by improving the system of child income supports, particularly for families in which one or both parents are moving from welfare to work. This will be informed by the work of the advisory group on tax and social welfare.

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