Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the first-year and full-year cost of increasing community employment, Tús and rural social scheme payments by €1 per week, each year for three years. [36569/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The estimated annual cost of increasing the weekly rate of Community Employment, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme by €1 is €1.64 million.

It should be noted that this costing includes a proportionate increase for qualified adults and for those on reduced rates of payment, where relevant.

This costing is based on the estimated average number of recipients in 2025, and is subject to change in light of emerging trends and subsequent revision of the estimated number of recipients.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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155. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the first-year and full-year cost of doubling the monthly child benefit payment for a year for all recipients of the one family payment and the working family payment. [36570/25]

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 nineteenth 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.

My department currently has 83,241 children benefiting from One Parent Family Payment and 100,117 children benefiting from Working Family Parent.

However, there are an estimated 11,500 children where the claimant is in receipt of both One Parent Family Payment and Working Family Payment. Consequently, the number of individual children supported by One Parent Family Payment or Working Family Payment is calculated at 171,858.

Doubling the monthly Child Benefit payment for a year for each of these children would increase the overall expenditure on Child Benefit by approximately €288million per year.

These estimates are based on a full year basis and on the number of recipients in May 2025. 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.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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156. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the first-year and full-year cost of doubling the monthly child benefit payment for a year for all households with medical card holders. [36571/25]

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.

Child Benefit is paid at €140 per month, with twins being paid at 150% per child and triplets being paid at 200% per child.

Medical cards come under the remit of the Department of Health and my Department has no access to data on the number of households that currently hold a medical card, therefore we would not be in a position to provide a full year cost of doubling the monthly child benefit payment.