Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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521. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing child benefit by 10% and extending payment to all children aged 18 years or under, including those in the international protection process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35641/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 19th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability.

Child Benefit is currently in payment in respect of approximately 1.2 million children with an estimated expenditure of €2.2 billion for 2025. The cost of increasing Child Benefit by 10% would result in additional annual expenditure on the scheme of approximately €218 million based on the estimated number of recipients in 2025. It should be noted that this estimate is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients.

Where a child has a disability, Child Benefit continues to be payable until the child's 19th birthday whether or not the child is in full-time education. Otherwise, 16, 17 and 18 year olds must be in full time education in order for the payment to continue. There are currently no plans to extend Child Benefit in respect of 16, 17 or 18 year olds who are not in full-time education or training.

It is important that the Child Benefit payment reflects our policy objective of encouraging young people to remain in education or to avail of the very many training options that are available to them including those available through YouthReach and the Community Training Centres.

As of May 2025, my Department's records indicate there were approximately 16,000 16, 17 and 18 year olds whose Child Benefit payments had stopped as there was no evidence they were in full time education. Extending Child Benefit to these individuals, assuming that they were all single births, would therefore cost approximately €27 million annually.

To receive Child Benefit in Ireland, parents must be habitually resident in the State. Applicants for International Protection do not satisfy the Habitual Residence Condition and are therefore not eligible for Child Benefit.

The international protection process is the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. My department does, however, administer the Daily Expenses Allowance which is paid to international protection applicants who reside in accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Services, in order to meet incidental, personal expenses. As of May of this year, there were 6,832 children residing in IPAS-provided accommodation in respect of whom daily expenses allowance is being paid.

Assuming that each child recipient of the Daily Expenses Allowance was a single birth, and noting that this number does not include those who are 18 years of age, the cost to extend Child Benefit to this cohort would be in the region of €11.5 million per annum.

The total combined cost for the measures requested could therefore be estimated as approximately €256.5 million per annum.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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522. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing qualified child rates by €6 for children under 12 and €15 for children 12; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35642/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The cost of increasing the Child Support Payment (formerly the Increase for a Qualified Child) for children under 12 years, from the current rate of €50 by €6 to €56 per week, and of increasing the Child Support Payment for children aged 12 years and over, from the current rate of €62 by €15 to €77 per week is total cost of €145 million in a full year.

The above costings are on a full year basis and are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2025. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2025.