Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I support Senator McFadden's amendment, which seeks to deal with an issue I have raised on a number of occasions. I launched a campaign over a year ago to seek to restore universal child benefit to the children of asylum seekers who are being dealt with under the direct provision programme. The campaign is co-ordinated by the Free Legal Advice Centres and supported by a range of non-governmental organisations involved in children's rights. As Senator McFadden said, the imposition of the habitual residence condition and the subsequent denial of child benefit is seriously disadvantaging these children and their parents.

When I raised this matter on the Adjournment some weeks ago, the Minister, Deputy Cullen, told me that children in direct provision are regarded as having a payment being made to them. The Government considers that payments under the direct provision scheme are somehow equivalent to, or in substitution for, payments under the universal child benefit scheme. When one looks at the figures, however, that simply cannot be the case. As Senator McFadden said, the parents of children in direct provision are entitled to just €9 per week whereas those who can avail of universal child benefit in respect of their children receive approximately €250 per week, which is significantly more. The denial of child benefit to this relatively contained group of children — less than 3,000 people are affected — is in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Government's stated policy on the alleviation of child poverty. It is potentially in breach of the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, in which the Government pledges to allocate additional resources to help tackle child and family poverty. This benefit is supposed to be universal — it should be made available to every child in the land, irrespective of the means or status of their parents — but it is being denied to the disadvantaged children I have mentioned. I ask the Minister of State to consider accepting this amendment.