David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 416: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has received the completed NESC research into a second tier child income support payment; if not, when he expects to receive it; when he expects same to be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17206/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of an earlier Social Partnership agreement the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) was asked to examine the feasibility of merging the family income supplement with qualified child increases and possibly including other child supports such as the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, resulting in a single second tier child income support. Such a payment would be aimed specifically at targeting child poverty by channelling resources to low-income families without creating significant disincentives to employment. This commitment to examining such a change was subsequently embodied in the current social partnership agreement Towards 2016.

NESC has indicated that, as the proposed second tier income support would represent a new approach to targeting, the issues involved are complex and there are technical and policy challenges to be overcome. The Council's analysis of these issues will, when received, be of assistance in informing the future direction of child income support policy.

While jobs are the most effective way of lifting families and their children out of poverty and child benefit accounts for 68% of child income support payments, the substantial improvements in targeted measures announced in Budget 2007 for children in low income and welfare families will have an important impact on child poverty.

Family income supplement income thresholds were raised in Budget 2007, increasing the weekly payments of almost all existing FIS recipients by €9 for a one child family, to €111 for a family with eight or more children. Research has shown that poverty is more likely to be concentrated in larger families and this improvement continues the re-focusing of thresholds towards larger families which started in Budget 2006, thereby further targeting resources at low-income households.

In Budget 2007 all three qualified child increase rates which had remained unchanged since 1994, were increased to a single rate of €22 per week. In addition, the annual back to school clothing and footwear allowance, which provides income support for the poorest families at a particularly difficult time of the year, was increased by €60 for children aged 2 to 11, and by €95 for children aged 12 to 22, bringing the rates of payment to €180 and €285 respectively.

These changes represent a more selective approach to child income support through targeting children in poorer households while at the same time limiting the extent to which employment incentives are worsened.