Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is being deliberately misleading with regard to Chile and Poland. No one has suggested that Ireland should have levels of child benefit comparable to those countries.

10 o’clock

The Central Statistics Office and UNICEF have stated there are frightening levels of child poverty in this country, that they have increased substantially in recent years, that if they are not tackled, they will create significant problems in the future in respect of dependency and that young people and children will not be looked after properly as a result of austerity. The levels are frightening. The Minister believed previously that child benefit should be increased and protected. Will she do this and reverse the cuts she has imposed on families and children in the past few years?

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