John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the cut to child benefit proposed in the Bill. Senator Buttimer referred to many issues I wanted to cover in my contribution. He is right. Essentially, what we are all about is helping families and others. I object in the strongest possible terms to Government policy. Before the budget, many Government Members and their supporters decried child benefit because it was a universal payment. They then came along in the budget and used a universal method to cut it.

Those on higher incomes do not need the same level of child benefit; in some cases, they do not need any. I have no problem with this. However, for many families it is the difference between putting clothes on children's backs and putting food on the table, or not being able to do so. I mentioned on Second Stage that I had recently been in the company of two women, one who had boasted - Senator Cummins referred to a similar incident - that she would give all of her child benefit payments to the child when he reached 18 years, although she said child benefit should not be touched in the budget; and the other who was from a very modest background and had four small children and who I knew depended on child benefit to meet bills and keep the show on the road. It is very unfair of the Government to penalise both equally. That is effectively what is being done and it is absolutely wrong.

I come from a very rural part of Ireland. In my area there are many households and many women rearing children. In some instances, child benefit is the only money they get into their hands, particularly for women who are not working outside the home but who are very much working in the home. That is the sad reality of what is being proposed in a cut to child benefit of this magnitude. I urge Senators on the other side to see the error of their ways at this juncture and to rethink how we can more fairly reconstitute the child benefit system in order that it would be brought within the taxation system. Most would agree with this. Ultimately, however, those on the lowest incomes and those who depend on social welfare should not suffer the same monetary reduction in their income - in fact, it is a much greater reduction in real terms when one takes into account the universal hatchet job done on child benefit, as proposed in this section of the Bill.