A letter from the Minister of State for Children, Brian Lenihan, to parents entitled to the early childcare supplement (ECS) has uncovered the fact that between 4,500 and 5,000 people in receipt of child benefit are not living at the address they supplied to the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
Speaking at a press conference to mark the first ECS payments on Monday, the Minister responded to criticism from Fine Gael about the cost of two letters sent out by him to eligible parents, informing them of the scheme.
"It is normal practice to send out such information and I did so on the advice of my civil servants," said Mr Lenihan. "As an issue has been made of this by the Opposition, I would like to point out that 4,500 to 5,000 letters were returned as the people were not living at the address supplied.
"As 75 per cent of child benefit payments are made electronically, this information has already saved the department far more than the cost of sending out the letters in terms of ECS payments and will also lead to savings in child benefit payments," said the Minister.
He added that while some of the parents had probably only changed address without informing the department and would be entitled to the payment, others had left the country or had been making false claims.
"If only 500 of those not living at the supplied address do not have an entitlement to ECS then the savings arising from the letter being sent out will be twice the cost," said Mr Lenihan.
Parents with children under the age of six will received €1,000 a year per child under the terms of the ECS scheme, with the first quarterly payment of €250 due to be paid from Monday covering the months of April, May and June.
"The policy of this Government is to support people in whatever decisions they make about the care of their children. That is why we have dramatically increased the level of direct financial assistance we give to parents The new ECS, together with the increased child benefit, will ease the burden on parents of pre-school children. For example, a family with three children under the age of six will receive direct financial support of over €8,800 a year in a full year. That is an increase of some €7,300 since 1997.
"Even after inflation, the support to such families is nearly five times higher, in real terms, that it was in 1997 when this Government first took office," said Mr Lenihan.
The Minister stressed that the issue of parental choice was fundamental to the Government approach to childcare.
"That is why we decided to introduce the ECS, because it is paid to all parents of children under six, regardless of whether they are being taken care of in a creche, by a childminder or by one of their parents.
"Parents are best placed to decide how to care for their children. Our job is to support them in that decision and that is what we are doing," he said.