Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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172. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the cost of increasing the weekly family income thresholds by €5 and €10, respectively, per child for each income band; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17788/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent child and family poverty and offers a financial incentive to take-up employment as compared to other social welfare payments. There are currently over 56,000 families with more than 122,000 children in receipt of FIS. Expenditure on FIS is estimated to be of the order of €410 million in 2016.

To qualify for FIS average weekly family income must be below a specified amount which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family. The income thresholds reflect a number of objectives: to maintain the incentive to take up employment; to reduce the risk of household poverty; and to provide a more consistent level of support per child to poor households.

Between 2010 and 2015 FIS income thresholds remained unchanged. In Budget 2016 they were raised by €5 for families with one child and €10 for families with two or more children, at a cost of €18 million in a full year. The average weekly payment made to families is currently estimated at €135 per week. Since 2010 the number of families in receipt of FIS has doubled.

Based on the most recent FIS recipient numbers from early June 2016, the cost of further increasing the weekly FIS income thresholds by €5 per child per week is estimated to be in the region of €19.2 million. The cost of increasing the thresholds by €10 per child per week is estimated to be in the region of €38.5 million.

My Department has no way of predicting with any degree of accuracy the potential in-flow from raising the income thresholds as proposed by the Deputy. Therefore neither of the estimates above includes the potential additional costs associated with such a measure.

Any changes to the FIS income thresholds would have to be considered in an overall Budgetary context.