Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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155. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on proposals to link child benefit payments to school attendance rates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17708/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit as a universal payment to help families with the cost of raising children and plays an important role in tackling child poverty. It does not rely on a means test or social insurance contributions and is paid to the parents of qualified children up to the age of 18 years.

It is paid to around 624,000 families for almost 1.2 million children with my Department spending this year an estimated €2 billion on Child Benefit.

It is not linked to school attendance for children under 16 and the Social Welfare Acts do not require monitoring of school attendance for under 16s. There is no power in the Act to do so.

For older children aged 16 and 17 years, an annual declaration is required from parents, signed by their school, that their children attend school or they have a disability.

The monitoring of children's attendance at school is an important child welfare issue and is monitored by TUSLA under the Education (Welfare) Acts on a statutory basis on behalf of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Any issues concerning school attendance including the operation of the monitoring systems are a matter for TUSLA and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

My Department operates control programmes on all departmental schemes, designed to ensure that payments cease where there is no longer an entitlement. Child Benefit operates a very effective and efficient control programme, ensuring that payment is only paid to families who continue to have an entitlement.