Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Senator is correct that there have been some delays in processing child benefit claims. These largely occur in the case of claims made by non-nationals living in Ireland for children who are non-resident. Processing such applications requires a large number of checks to be made in the home country of the families in question to ensure the child exists and the family is not in receipt of other payments. While this has caused delays, in recent weeks the child benefit section has made a concerted effort to clear arrears. Senators will note from figures on payments made this year that expenditure on child benefit has increased considerably. This is primarily due to arrears being cleared rather than an increase in claims. The Department aims to clear the balance of arrears.