Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted that any cuts in the forthcoming Budget will be designed to protect as many jobs as possible.
Despite widespread speculation of a €10 a month drop in child benefit and €8 for those on unemployment assistance, Mr Kenny insisted the Government has not signed off on the details ahead of December 6th.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has been accused of breaking a pre-election pledge not to cut child benefit. There is said to be considerable disquiet among Labour backbenchers at the emergence of the child benefit proposal as an issue over the weekend.
Labour sources attributed the focus on the child benefit issue to Fine Gael elements opposed to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton’s controversial plan for employers to pay the first four weeks of sick pay to their staff.
Ms Burton today neither confirmed nor denied reports a cut in was imminent, insisting that no final decisions have been made in relation to child benefit.
Speaking to reporters in Knock today, Mr Kenny warned that difficult cuts will be imposed to avoid having to hike taxes and ensure the Government can fulfil its main objective of protecting jobs. “No decisions have been made about any of those range of matters that are being talked about because the Cabinet have not signed off on the Budget yet,” he said. “The mandate given to the Government was to sort out the difficulties with our public finances and have a governance system that looks after those who are vulnerable, and at the same time allows for us to concentrate on what is fundamental here and that’s getting people back to work.
“So, if we don’t make the cuts that have been agreed on, that’s to get down €3.8 billion this year, then the only alternative is to increase taxes and increasing taxes affects jobs directly.”
Speaking in Limerick, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan declined to respond to the reports of social welfare cuts, describing them as speculation.
“There’s always speculation before budgets and we are not really in a position to clarify the position until the Government makes the final decisions and the announcements are made either immediately before the budget in terms of books of estimates or before on budget day when the tax measures are dealt with,” he said.
However, unofficial sources said child benefit has already been part of the pre-Budget discussions at Cabinet and it is listed as one of the options for possible inclusion in the final package.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said yesterday that, although no decision had been made on the matter, there were “going to have to be cuts in social welfare”.
Fianna Fáil today posted a video on its website of Labour leader Eamon Gilmore promising his party would not agree to any further cuts in the family allowance in the run-up to last February’s general election.
The party's social protection spokesman Barry Cowen called on Mr Gilmore, to clarify if this remains the party’s position. "The reports this weekend that Minister Joan Burton is to cut child benefit payments by at least €10 a month have come as a major shock and worry to families across the country," Mr Cowen said. "Just nine months ago, Labour could not have been clearer in their promises to them that a vote for their party was a vote to protect child benefit."
"If the reports are accurate, this news represents the utter capitulation of the Labour Party on what it described as its 'red line issue'," he added.
The Cabinet is due to discuss a raft of budgetary proposals, including a possible cut in child benefit, at meetings this week
The Department of Social Protection will bear the brunt of cuts in next month’s budget, accounting for €700 million of the €2.2 billion reductions in expenditure.
The proposal to cut child benefit has been criticised by opposition TDs and anti-poverty campaigners.
Senator and outgoing chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance Jillian Van Turnhout said the measure, coming on the back of cuts in child benefit in the previous two budgets, would push many families on low-middle incomes into poverty.
"Child poverty is unacceptable and child benefit has been proven as a universal measure to ensure that families have a safety net," she told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
On the same programme, Labour TD for Dublin North Central Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said these were “very stark times and very difficult choices” but insisted next month's Budget needed to be viewed in its “totality” before making judgments.
He also alluded to reports that a cut in child benefit may be counter-balanced with a reduction in the universal social charge for low-income families.
Richard Boyd Barrett accused the Labour Party of "yet another betrayal of pre-election promises that will have untold consequences for people and families already living in poverty."
“90,000 children are already living in consistent poverty and it is these children and the children of the low paid and unemployed who will suffer as a result of a brutal cut such as this,” he said.
“It is utter barbarism to take this vital allowance away from families already living in difficult circumstances and looked at alongside the complete lack of a political will to impose even the smallest of tax on wealth in this country it is outrageously shameful.”
The proposal was described as “deplorable” by Orla O’Connor of the National Women’s Council of Ireland. She said €140 per month was a meagre sum when it came to meeting the cost of raising children, including food, clothing, education and childcare.
Director of Social Justice Ireland, Fr Seán Healy said there was "absolutely no justification" for cutting child benefit. "If Government feels people who are better off should not be receiving this income then it should tax their income rather than the payments to the child," he said.