Written answers

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Department of Social Protection

Social Welfare Benefits

9:00 pm

Photo of Pádraig Mac LochlainnPádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans for the future of child benefit. [10453/11]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Child benefit payments assist parents in contributing to the costs associated with raising children and play a very important role in the objective of reducing child poverty. A value for money review of child income support policies and associated programmes was published by the Department in November 2010. The review covered policy around child benefit, qualified child increases and the family income supplement payments as well as aspects of some other child-related payments. The Department is undertaking some follow-up work, including a recent consultation seminar with interest groups on the review, which gathered the views of stakeholders as to the future direction of policy on these payments. Creating jobs and tackling poverty are two of the key challenges that we face. It is essential that our tax and social protection systems play their part in addressing these problems. As we stressed in the preamble to our Programme for Government, in order to address the very substantial problems that we face, it is essential that new ways, new approaches and new thinking will form the constant backdrop to the work of the Government. For this reason we will seek to benefit from the expertise of a commission on taxation and social welfare that will consider a number of issues arising out of the operation of the tax and social welfare systems, including the issue of family and child income supports. The Government considers it a priority that a more fundamental examination of our system of family and child income supports is required. Consequently, the commission will be asked to examine and make recommendations on these payments, with particular emphasis on addressing the cycle of child poverty. The Government is currently considering the scope of the commission's work and the practical arrangements around its operation. An announcement on these will be made shortly.

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