Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

They are from the child benefit section. They might have been made 20 or 30 years ago, but in fact they came from earlier this year. The Labour Party leader, now Tánaiste in the new Government said:

Things like not cutting child benefit any further. Enough is enough. Families can take no more.

He also stated that it would be a pre-requirement for entering Government with Fine Gael that child benefit payments would not be reduced. The current Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party said this in February. In October 2010, he also spoke about child benefit.

It is the only State recognition that there is of mothers because it is paid directly to mothers... Does Labour see room for some cuts? No we don't. Again if you look at any of the studies that have been done on poverty, the people in our population that are worst affected are children...The cutting of child benefit makes that worse.

At the Labour Party child care policy launch on 23 February 2011, the following was stated.

Labour will not cut child benefit, because we acknowledge that: some extremely harsh budgets in recent years have meant that family incomes have already taken a substantial hit; despite our current economic problems, Ireland remains a very expensive place to raise a child, and child benefit is the only recognition by the State of this high cost; cutting child benefit will create poverty traps, work disincentives, and will substantially increase the already high number of children in poverty.

We are now ten months on and those words ring hollow. The cumulative effect of the cuts being proposed in the budget will hit larger families disproportionately. A family with three children will be down €324 per year by the end of 2013, following the introduction of these child benefit cuts. A family of five children will be losing €1,200 by the end of 2013.

A family of six, seven or eight children — there are families in my constituency with eight children — will lose €3,816 at the end of 2013, as a result of this decision together with all the other associated cuts. It is a step too far and is in strark contrast to what was being said before the election. One of my Sinn Féin colleagues mentioned that prior to the election, people voted for the Labour Party and Fine Gael because of the protections that were perceived to be given on the social welfare side of expenditure but that is not the case today following its first budget. That leads to the question as to what will happen in subsequent budgets in the coming years. The Minister is going down the wrong road and is attacking children. Whereas Barnardos said 90,000 children are living in poverty that does not appear to be recognised. The payment is available to the child to support children growing up and family units. The child benefit increases provided by the previous Government have been welcome but it is a step in the wrong direction to reverse and continue to reduce such payments to the levels I have outlined. We cannot support the proposal to cut child benefit payment because we have provided alternative solutions in our pre-budget submission to the Department of Finance.

At this late stage I appeal to the Minister not to proceed with those cuts. It will be a matter for Labour Party and Fine Gael Senators to decide whether to vote in favour of the section. I remind them that prior to the election they were utterly opposed to any cuts to child benefit payments.