Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Again, we will look at all issues and proposals in the context of budget 2026, which will be delivered later this year. At the moment, our priority is to get these payments out and to get work on child poverty very much under way within the Department in the context of programme for Government commitments. We are looking at targeted child benefit payments and how these would interact with existing payments. We are looking at work that has been done by the ESRI, the NESC and the Commission on Taxation and Welfare and how a new child benefit payment might interact with the working family payment, which is also available for people facing any kind of income pressure, and the child support payment. That will be looked at as part of a broader examination of the design of the new targeted child benefit payment. Right across government, we are very focused on child poverty; it is not just the Department of Social Protection. We are asking all other Departments that engage in this space to come to the table with proposals as to how we can work collectively to assist children in poverty.

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