Sir, – It doesn’t make much sense to compare the allowance given to children in the UK with that given to children here (Dr Owen Corrigan, October 11th) unless you also take into consideration the provision of free GP healthcare, prescription medicine and schoolbooks given to children in the UK by the state.
If changes are to be made to children’s allowance here then the least the government could do would be to give tax credits to families on a per child basis to acknowledge their existence in the Irish economy and to support their financial needs. Anyone not in the tax net should still receive the allowance as it currently stands. – Yours, etc,