Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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203. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures his Department is taking to enable payment of child benefit to be split between parents, in view of the fact that modern families may require this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17856/26]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment 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 where they are in full-time education or have a disability. It is paid in respect of almost 1.3 million children.

As a universal payment, Child Benefit assists parents with the cost associated with raising children and contributes towards alleviating child poverty.

Child Benefit is paid to the person with whom the child normally resides. Where a child spends time across two households they are considered to reside in the household where they spend the majority of the time.

Legislation does not provide for splitting the payment between both parents, even in instances where the child splits their time evenly between both households. In cases where the parents have an equal custody arrangement, the payment is awarded to the mother.

There are a number of reasons that this policy position has been maintained:

• First, various international studies have found that, on average, when the Child Benefit payment is made to the mother it results in more money spent on the child than when it is paid to the father. For example, a 2017 article published in the International Tax and Public Finance journal found that more money is spent on food when the mother is in control of child benefits compared to when it is jointly controlled. Similarly, researchers found that when the United Kingdom replaced the Family Allowance Payment to the father with a Children’s Allowance payment to the mother, it resulted in greater spending on children’s clothing.
• Second, SAFE IRELAND, which works with more than 40 specialist domestic violence member organisations across the country, has pointed out that domestic violence, which is overwhelmingly experienced by women, often includes economic abuse and that control of household income can be one of the ways in which this type of abuse manifests itself. Many argue that directing the Child Benefit payment to the mother can act to mitigate the impact of this kind of abuse.
• Finally, in split custody arrangements, it would be extremely challenging to split the payment proportionately on a case-by-case basis. In the first instance both parties would need to agree to the proportion of Child Benefit to be allocated, which could be difficult to achieve after a relationship breakdown. The agreed proportion would also be open to challenge if the child varied the time spent with a particular parent around school holidays or other occasions.