Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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655. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost in 2026 if child benefit is increased by €12 per month. [51841/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Child Benefit is a universal monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of sixteen 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 over 680,000 families in respect of over 1.3 million children. The estimated cost for 2025 is in the region of €2.2billion.

The estimated cost of increasing the monthly rate of Child Benefit by €12 is approximately €183m million per year.

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

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.