“The Government’s ambition,” said Paschal Donohoe as he started his budget speech on Tuesday, “is for Ireland to be one of the best countries in the world in which to be a child.”
Some of the measures announced are more specifically intended to make it a more affordable place to be a parent.
The most eye-catching measures to support children and their families announced by the Government in Tuesday’s budget involved bonus children’s benefit payments.
Parents collecting child benefit for the first time in relation to a newborn child will find the first payment tripled so that they receive €420 instead of €140. The move is intended to assist with the substantial costs associated with the arrival of a new child.
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Those in receipt of child benefit, meanwhile, will receive double payments in both November and December of this year, with the total additional amount received coming to €280.
Extra payments to foster carers are also to be made while there are to be increases to the weekly rates paid in respect of a qualified child – children of those in receipt of certain social protection payments – of €4 for under 12s and €8 for over 12s.
There is also to be a single payment of €100 to recipients for each qualified child this year.
Maternity and paternity leave payments are to increase by €15 a week while free public transport travel for young children is to be extended with those aged five to eight now set to benefit.
More than 200,000 families are set to benefit from the extension of free schoolbooks worth about €740 to Leaving Cert students next year while the budget also includes an extension of the free hot school meals programme to all 3,000-plus primary schools from next year from the current 2,200.
A pilot programme of free meals being provided to children from less well-off families during school holidays is also to begin, while Roderic O’Gorman announced an Enhanced Nutrition Programme in Equal Start Priority Settings, the equivalent of Deis schools in the early learning and childcare sector.
This will include a substantial meal for 15,000 children participating in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in what are described as priority settings.
The Minister said total Government spending on the sector would be €1.37 billion next year, an increase of 114 per cent on four years ago.
“I believe this is one of the most significant investments that the State can make,” he said.
Though the amount of money in the sector has increased hugely during the term of this Government, the process has been marred by persistent complaints from providers. They say that, while parents have done well, they have had to burden a great deal of additional work while losing a measure of control over their businesses, including control over fees.
The amount of core funding directly given to providers to help with basic and other costs will be €350 million during the year commencing in September 2025, the Department of Children confirmed, an increase of 6 per cent, it said.
Mr O’Gorman, meanwhile, said he had secured an additional €15 million to help improve pay in the sector, up from the current €30 million a year, and this will be used to fund a future sector-wide agreement on wages.
This was welcomed by Elaine Dunne, chair of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, although she was critical of the overall package which, she said, fell well short of what was required.
She also said Mr Donohoe’s characterisation in the Dáil of spending on the sector next year had suggested there was to be another significant increase to National Childcare Scheme (NCS) subsidies when this is not in fact the case.
The NCS budget will increase, the department said later, but this is largely because a record number of children, 216,000, will be benefiting.
