Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Child benefit is a monthly payment to assist with the costs associated with raising children. It is paid to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education or who have a physical or mental disability. It is currently paid to around 623,000 families for 1.2 million children with an estimated spend of over €2 billion by my Department this year. Child benefit is an important source of income for families and in Budget 2016, the Government increased child benefit by €5 per month at a cost of €72 million.

The cost of extending child benefit to 18 year olds in second level education is estimated at €62.5 million. Obviously, it would be a multiple of that to extend it to young people into their twenties in education. As child benefit is a universal payment, any such proposal would not target those most in need of help from the State.

Families on low incomes can avail of a number of provisions to social welfare schemes that support children in full-time education until the age of 22, including an increase for a qualified child with primary social welfare payments, family income supplement for low-paid employees with children and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance for low-income families, which is paid at the full-time second level education rate.

In addition to this scheme, the main financial support available to students attending post-leaving certificate or higher education courses is the statutory based student grant scheme. This scheme, which is administered by SUSI, offers a means-tested grant scheme that provides maintenance and-or fee support to qualifying disadvantaged students. The combined effect of these schemes provides effective targeted assistance directly linked with household income and thereby supports low-income families with older children participating in full-time education.

See this speech in context