Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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323. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he has considered the position of children who were over five years of age when they started primary school and are therefore 19 years old in sixth year, assuming they have done transition year, and so are not eligible for children's allowance although they are not working and have no means to support themselves while at school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30443/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is currently paid to around 619,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure in the order of over €2 billion in 2016. Child Benefit is an important source of income for all families and in Budget 2016 the Government increased Child Benefit by €5 per month, at a cost of €72 million.

Budget 2009 reduced the age for eligibility for Child Benefit from 19 years to less than 18 years.

Families on low incomes can avail of a number of provisions to social welfare schemes that support children in full-time education until the age of 22, including:

- qualified child increases (IQCs) with primary social welfare payments;

- family income supplement (FIS) for low-paid employees with children;

- the back to school clothing and footwear allowance for low income families (paid at the full-time second level education rate).

These schemes provide targeted assistance that is directly linked with household income and thereby supports low-income families with older children participating in full-time education.