Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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A newborn baby grant of €280 was announced in Budget 2025 to be paid to families of babies born on or after 1st December 2024. This grant is paid alongside but in addition to the first month’s Child Benefit payment of €140. So parents of newborns will receive a total first payment of €420.

The Benefit is payable in respect of newborn babies from the month after birth. Parents of children born in one month, therefore, can receive the Child Benefit payment, including the newborn grant, from the next month onwards.

It is important to note that, as the newborn baby grant is paid automatically with Child Benefit payments, there is no additional application for the grant, so parents of new babies do not need to do anything to receive the grant.

Child Benefit itself, as the Deputy may be aware, is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16,17 and 18 if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.

At present, Child Benefit is in payment to 679,000 families in respect of 1.27 million children with an estimated expenditure of €2.2 billion for 2025.

The first payments issued on 11th February to over 4,400 customers in respect of 4,522 children and included payments for children born on or after 1st December last year. To date, 6,345 customers have been paid the new-born baby grant in respect of 6,448 children.

There have been 112 newborn baby grant payments to date for parents in Offaly.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.