Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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25. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her Department has done an analysis of the impact of the reductions in child benefit on poverty and deprivation levels; if she will fully reverse cuts in child benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9372/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Child Benefit is a universal payment made to families with children. It assists those families with the cost associated with raising children. It is paid to almost 1.2 million children in over 600,000 families. Expenditure on child benefit payments in 2014 was just over €1.9 billion. Altogether, the Department spends in the region of €3 billion in providing income support for children and families.

Child income supports and other social transfers are very effective in reducing child poverty. The 2013 CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows that social transfers reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children from 45.5% to 17.9%, thereby lifting a quarter of all children out of poverty. This equates to a poverty reduction effect of 60.7% in 2013. Ireland is amongst the best performing member states in the EU in this regard.

The Department has published a social impact assessment of Budgets 2013, 2014 and 2015. Social impact assessment is an evidence-based methodology which estimates the likely effects of welfare and tax policies on households across income levels and social groups.

In Budget 2015, Government increased child benefit by €5 per month, at a cost of €72 million. Other child-specific measures included €22 million for the new back to work family dividend and an additional €2 million on the school meals programme.

The social impact assessment of Budget 2015 found that for the first time since the economic crisis, welfare and income tax policies will result in an increase in average household incomes of 0.7 per cent (equivalent of almost €6 per week), inclusive of the effect of the water charges. Furthermore, it found that households with children (earning and non-earning) generally gain more that those without children. There is no significant change in the at-risk-of-poverty rate though the income threshold increased, which suggests that social transfers continue to perform strongly in reducing poverty.

The economy is growing, unemployment is falling, and confidence is slowly returning. The Government has completed the first phase of the recovery and we are now starting the second: the process of restoring living standards, to ensure that everyone - every family, every community, will benefit from the recovery.