Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 85: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to means test child benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40650/09]

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 an d 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 intention to tax or means test child benefit from 2010.

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. Both their reports 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.