Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 222: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will ensure that child benefit is not interfered with in the course of budgetary reviews within her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41031/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the rates of child benefit have increased significantly since 2001 having trebled for the first two children and increased by over 185% for the third and subsequent children. Partly as a result of this and partly as a result of an increase in the number of eligible children, overall expenditure on child benefit grew from just under €965 million in 2001 to nearly €2.5 billion in 2008. This level of expenditure is unsustainable in the current economic crisis and so the Minister for Finance, mindful of the need to address all aspects of the public finances so as to avoid excessive borrowing and to ensure that fairness exists in the allocation of resources, indicated in the Supplementary Budget the Government's intention to consider taxing or means testing child benefit from 2010.

In this regard, the Commission of Taxation was requested to examine the implications of taxing child benefit. The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes was appointed with a mandate to examine all current Exchequer Programmes across all Departments and agencies to see where savings might be made. The reports of this Group and of the Commission of Taxation contain a wide range of proposals relating to my Department's schemes and services, including the child benefit scheme and decisions in relation to these will be made in the context of the forthcoming budget and subsequent budgets. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on individual proposals at this stage.

In its deliberations the Government will be mindful of the needs of families, particularly those on lower incomes when deciding on the various options in the forthcoming budget.