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

I share the Deputy's concern. As is the case with any in-work payment, there is a worry that low pay might be subsidised and facilitated. That is a big issue in the United Kingdom where I think they have very much gone down that road. We always need to guard against that.

FIS is, of course, about more than pay. It is also about family size, so there are people on low pay who do not qualify for FIS because they have no children or only one. There are people on low to middle incomes who qualify for FIS because they have a lot of children. It is important to acknowledge that.

My Department has given me an options paper on different options we could pursue in respect of the working family payment. I am considering that paper at the moment and I intend to share it with the Oireachtas joint committee this side of the summer. The approach emerging at the moment is to make amendments to the family income supplement rather than starting from scratch and designing a whole new scheme - to build on FIS, which seems to be working quite well. Anything that is done comes with a cost, but my intention is to share that paper with the joint committee before the summer recess.

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