Social Welfare Payments

14. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Protection the analysis and consideration that has been given to introducing a second-tier child benefit payment for households, as a taxable payment. [67532/26]

I appreciate this opportunity from the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

We have just completed a public consultation on a second-tier of payment. It concluded on 12 June and we received submissions from representative bodies, advocacy organisations and service providers. We are currently finalising the analysis of that consultation. On 8 September, the ESRI published its sixth annual report on poverty, income inequality and living standards. The report proposes a version of a second-tier child benefit as a possible mechanism. It was a very different proposal from the one considered by the ESRI in 2025. We are currently looking at that proposal and the differences. However, we acted in budget 2026 by introducing record child support payment increases for over-12s and under-12s and by improving the availability of the fuel allowance for those on the working family payment, which ensured that 50,000 families who previously would not have had access to the fuel allowance would receive it. As the Deputy knows, the working family payment is aligned to the number of children in a family. We are considering the consultation. We are looking at the ESRI's revised proposals. As we discussed earlier, I will engage with colleagues from across the House through the joint Oireachtas committee on this during the course of the next budget. I can give the Deputy a guarantee that we will have a considerable child poverty package in the context of budget 2027. We are negotiating that as we speak.

I thank the Minister. I do not for a second doubt his personal commitment, or that of the Taoiseach, to dealing with child poverty. When I look at the taxable payment that has been recommended by the ESRI, it has a lot of things going for it: its effectiveness; it could take up to 20,000 children out of poverty; it could eventually subsume the child support payment; and it could tackle a lot more of the children who are in poverty at the moment. It is simpler to introduce and it is much easier to understand as well. In the round, as the Minister carries out that engagement with colleagues across the House and, I am sure, the ESRI on those proposals, I encourage him to consider that as a possibility for doing what we all want, namely, to really make a dent in the journey of bringing down child poverty in this country.

We will engage with the ESRI. It was a very different model from the one it proposed previously. We also want to engage with the ESRI on details on income thresholds and what means test it would have in mind. There is quite a lot of work to be done in this space. We want to incorporate the feedback from the consultation process and engage with Members of the Oireachtas on their views in this space.