Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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152. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her reasons for not accepting Deputy Denis Naughten's innovative proposal on linking child-benefit payments to school attendance; if she acknowledges that such a system would help reduce the incidence of early school leaving, school absenteeism, child-benefit fraud and would eliminate overseas payments; the savings her Department estimates would be achieved from such a system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43416/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Child benefit is a universal monthly payment that assists all families with in the many costs associated with raising children up to the age of 18 years. Child benefit is paid to around 606,000 families in respect of some 1.15 million children with an estimated expenditure of around €1.9 billion. Child benefit is a highly valued income support by families, and is especially important during a time of recession and unemployment.

It is a statutory requirement that a child attends school up to 16 years of age. Consequently, all recipients of child benefit are already legally required to attend school up to this age. There is a national monitoring system for statutory school attendance via the National Educational Welfare Board under the auspices of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. For children over 16 years and less than 18 years, the continuation of child benefit is dependent on the children attending school for these two years. The Department of Social Protection issues a confirmation letter to parents with children at age 16 and at age 17, which must be signed by their school for each of these years. I am satisfied that the requirement for school attendance for children in receipt of child benefit is already a feature of both education and social protection policy. If the Deputy has concerns about early school leaving and school absenteeism, he should direct these to the competent authorities, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the National Education Welfare Board.

My Department has taken a proactive approach to ensure that child benefit is only paid to eligible families. In 2008 the Department commenced issuing continuing eligibility certificates to parents. The control policy for the child benefit scheme was reviewed in 2010 to ensure that controls on fraud and abuse of the scheme continue to be effective and relevant. As a result of this review, enhanced and updated control measures have been devised. The total savings from child benefit control activity was €48.5 million in 2008, €89 million in 2009, €106 million in 2010, €85 million in 2011 and €83 million in 2012. The reduction in the level of savings achieved is due to the effectiveness of the control programme in recent years. This is also reflected in the savings achieved so far in 2013, which amount to just under €54 million.

The Deputy should note that child benefit payment is classified as a family benefit under EU regulations. A key principle of the coordination system is that persons moving to different Member States are subject to the same obligations and enjoy the same benefits as the nationals of those Member States. Therefore, EU nationals who come to work in Ireland, and who pay Irish social insurance contributions, are entitled to receive child benefit in respect of their children, even if the children reside in another EU Member State.