Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of providing an increased child benefit for the third child and above by €10, €15, €20, €25, €30 and €35. [37174/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability.

Child Benefit is currently paid to almost 677,000 families in respect of over 1.2 million children with an estimated expenditure of approximately €2.2 billion in 2024.

Approximately, 180,000 children are either the third or subsequent child on a Child Benefit claim. The estimated annual cost of increasing the monthly rate of Child Benefit by €10, €15, €20, €25, €30, and €35 for this group is set out as follows:

These estimates are based on a full year basis and on the number of recipients in 2024. It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated number of recipients.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.