The likelihood of a substantial increase in child benefit in December's Budget has been indicated by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Séamus Brennan.
Speaking to journalists at the publication of the Combat Poverty Agency's annual report in Dublin yesterday, Mr Brennan also criticised the Labour Party's childcare policy launched last week, saying it was turning the issue into a "Dutch auction".
The agency in its annual report focuses on child poverty as the key issue to be addressed in tackling social exclusion. "A modern 21st-century society such as Ireland should not tolerate child poverty," said its director Helen Johnston. The figures for Ireland, she said, "were still very high".
She said the latest figures from the CSO showed 242,000 children were living in low-income families while 142,000 were in "consistently" poor homes. These 142,000 children accoun- ted for 14.6 per cent of children, Ms Johnston said. "Children in Ireland are twice as likely to be poor as adults."
She called for a focused, concerted national strategy on ending poverty among children, articulated by key politicians. "This should be supported by a strategy to ensure that all sectors of Irish society will support and contribute to policies and actions to eliminate child poverty."
Ms Johnston told The Irish Times that Mr Brennan seemed "committed to this issue" and that the agency had been invited to meet him at the end of September to discuss means of tackling it.
While Ireland has had a "fairly adequate child income support system ... our service provision for children is relatively poor".
Mr Brennan said a "substantial increase in child benefit" was being considered "as a contribution to childcare costs". "That's one of a number of options being looked at [on addressing child-care]. Others will be extended maternity and parental leave."
Asked about the Labour Party's €1.5 billion childcare policy published last week, which includes 12 months' paid maternity and parental leave and new direct payments to parents of up to €200 per child per month, he said there was a "danger of getting into a Dutch auction on the issue over the next 18 months". It was "easy", he said, for Opposition parties to "put another billion euro on the table" and "to outbid the Government".
"We don't have the luxury of that. We have to implement whatever we propose and the right thing is to find a mix of measures that work. If we turn it into some kind of a Dutch auction we will not help the children and parents we're meant to be helping."
Report: main measures
