You are wrong. One of the parents has to be living here to still be entitled to it. But you can’t blame the “foreigners” as seems to be the fashion lately. If you were in the UK, would you honestly refuse to claim benefits you are entitled to there under EU law for your kids back in Ireland?

@ Dennis: Its true re blaming the foreigners, but I’m disappointed Joan Burton (after getting a talking down from her Polish counterpart) hasn’t pushed harder for this EU law to be changed rather than backing down.

I’d imagine both the UK and France could be lobbied to support the Irish position.

For information, taken from Citizens Information:

One child €140
Two children €280
Three children €447
Four children €624
Five children €801
Six children €978
Seven children €1,155
Eight children €1,332

Twins get 1.5 times the monthly rate, while triplets get double the monthly rate.

I also am surprised that children not in school (i.e. two and three year olds) were eligible for the back to school allowance.

What date was on this information? I thought they changed this in last budget for 3 and more kids?

you only have to hire wally rabbits once a year insted of twice

I suppose its cos they have double the outlay at the same time. Nappies, bottles ect while a family wit kids a year apart have different expenses at different times…
Not sure wot ur talking about martin.

not sure if it’s there any more, wally wabbits was kids play park . you would only need to hire it once a year instead of twice for birthday parties etc, also only one cake and one set of candles, big savings

What if you didn’t plan it??

Should read, people wouldn’t mind being cut if this sort of shite wasn’t going on….waste waste waste.

The Irish Indo article actually said that the committee reported in 2009 the options available, but more time and resources would actually be needed to figure out how Revenue would share info with Social Protection.

Maybe tax credits would be better than Child Benefit payments for those working, with those unemployed still getting the payment cash in hand?

so do you have children? do yo know how expensive their “free” education is? oh a visit to go is ?45 i work so no.medical card..clothing food shoes…comments like that are nonsense..means testing so tgose over ?75k pa pay tax on it..simple wheher 1 or 10 children

Excuse me.. My sister has 5 kids.. Her family moved to Wexford because the house prices in Dublin and Wicklow were too much. Her husband was laid off 2 years ago and the prospects of employment where he is are non existent.
Their home is in negative equity, they have 5 kids to feed, and they have nothing.. But hey – apparently now they’re gonna have even less..

Check your facts before you make such ignorant assumptions.. My sister ALWAYS puts her kids first, ad because of this one size fits all nonsense she will be tarred with the same brush you are waving.. Lovely..

if there was no childrens allowance would peole not have any children,

Next time they will cut benefits of those who have 2 children. Talk to you then.

so saffron which child do I give away to be in your words “more realistic” get a grip

Yeah, they should just return their kids to the stork factory.

This isn’t a ‘preventative’ measure that will encourage people to have less kids, this is a punishment for people who already have kids. Maybe they have became unemployed post the bust and have a mortgage too? This vindictive ‘serves-them-right’ attitude makes these comments sections of media outlets really nauseating.

The middle one Colm. Nobody loves the middle child. Middle child syndrome is a reality.

Ah yes! And perhaps we could add that to the list of contraceptives they discuss with you at the Maternity Hospital: “And what sort of protection will you and your partner be using? The Pill? Condoms? IUD?”

“Oh No! We’ve decided to go with the cuts to child Benefit!”

As for “Those on Social Welfare,” We had children before my husband lost his job. I suppose we could have considered fostering them out when he was made redundant, but we still live in hope that the government will consider dropping the minimum age to work to toddlerhood and make us even more appealing to foreign investors…

Until the second pregnancy produces twins of a different sex which happened to us

yes saffron in you perfect little world maybe..but we had twins of differant gender also.

So if u have aboy first ?? And a girl next !!! Umm u out her in boys clothes !!! Very good u should get a pay rise your very clever .. Ha ha

Yup.. When you have the first kid you get stuff you can hang on to.. But when nature decides to give you twins what do you do??

what a shower of malingering whingers, do you need the nanny state to do everything for you

Where do you live, Blackrock Co. Dublin?

So if you earn €200k and have 2 kids you don’t get cut, but if you have 3 kids on €30k you do get cut?
How the f##k is this reasonae?

I reckon this will target people having kids to live off child benefit.

who has kids to live off child benefit? Do you know how much it is? Child benefit would not support a child without being subsidised from another source i.e. income. Plus I would say that if people do use it in as a lifestyle choice their numbers would be so minimal that it wouldn’t be worth going to the effort of cutting EVERYONE’s. This is a classic tactic of divide and conquer. Te gov get the mood of the people and know they are in for a bumpy ride over the next couple of months while these budget ‘adjustments’ settle in so rather than upsetting the whole apple car that is the mass of people who have children (one or twenty or whatever) they divide it up so there is less of a liklihood of either civil unrest or a backlash come election time…smart move but I see through them… the bunch of B***ards.

Please explain how it’s cheaper to raise 3 kids versus 2 ?
They are taking the easy way out yet again, posh government making a balls of everything, tough decisions yes to be had but just leave child rems allowance alone, it’s been just several years on the trot.

Are you familiar with the word sarcasm?

Are you on drugs ? 3 kids means more spend

Calm down folks. I think it’s just a little use of sarcasm there. Came across very clear to me anyway.

Right on the money. The budget for children’s allowance is €2.5 Billion a year. Why should those taxpayers without children subsidies those who choose to have children. Children are a personal choice. Have them, don’t have them, but don’t expect other taxpayers to pick up the tab. I say abolish children’s allowance completely.

And sure if you have them then can’t afford them due to losing a job sure just give them away…simple as that! It’s great to have all the answers, Pa and Sean either you are in the enviable position not to rely on child benefit or you have no children.

Simple maths tell that by the time you will be old – there will be not enough young people to pay your pension. Simple maths – if you cannot afford to be old – do not be old!

All the easy targets will be hit…disability, carers, welfare, low income families, small businesses. Watch how the rich and big businesses get away scot free…

By your logic, Hitler must have had it right, maybe we should euthanise pensioners, the sick, people with disabilities, carers anyone who is “not the responsibility of the state” and a drain on resources. I’ve read some questionable comments on here before, but none quite as fascist as yours.

We did plan our family according to our means, we stupidly didn’t plan our family according to the fact that we had gobshites running the country and in charge of our banks!!

And if your ‘means’ changes after you have your children as has been the case for thousands of families in the last few years what then? Send the children to workhouses?

@Iain Murray I see Godwin’s law is alive and well. Epic fail of a post. Goodbye.

hmm..what complete and utter tosh. imagine if someone had laid that law down 9 or 10 month before you were born…get a grip

It’s a bit early in the comments to assume godwins law is at work here.

1. What if you didn’t plan for it at all? Abortion is still illegal, and adoption is much harder than you may realise.
2. As pointed out, what of your means change because the company you work for ups sticks and leaves for another country – like Dell or any of the manufacturing plants we have lost in the past while..

Sure sod it.. Why doesn’t the government just implement the single child policy like China??

Just because you choose to make assumptions about people based on sensationalised headlines doesn’t mean that it’s the reality of the situation..

The budget for children’s allowance is €2.5 Billion a year. Why should those taxpayers without children subsidies those who choose to have children. Children are a personal choice. Have them, don’t have them, but don’t expect other taxpayers to pick up the tab. I say abolish children’s allowance completely.

@Sean Byrne: Teeny tiny lesson in economics here. It is these “personal choices” as you call them, which will one day be paying your pension (if the gvn’t hasn’t completely boiled that bunny by the time you’ve reached your golden years) and paying into a system which in theory, will help to afford you such luxuries as a health care system, an education etc…

40% obviously….

Before you will tag me as “troll” as always, think about the fact that economy cannot grow without new people. Ireland needs new Irish people for economy to be competitive because only Irish people know how to do Irish business right. And society becomes more tolerant and liberal if it has, pardon, money. And to penalise people for building future it’s like to shoot yourselves in the foot.

you are so sad Angryzes..lose the blinkers and open.your eyes

Cuckoo….!

What’s the problem with what angryzes said? It makes sense to me, sorry angryzes i am guessing you are not a native english speaker but I think what you are saying is why penalize people for having more kids when it is those kids who will rebuild our future…what’s sad about that?

get a life, nobody needs to know your banal domestic set up

Because whether you decide to have them or not, they are the future.

Of course you are right. But it is still a personal choice. I fully agree children are the future, but when contemplating to have a child or not, a social welfare payment should not factor. It should be about personal responsibility and not handouts.

Wel if you decide not to have them they are hardly the future,

Are you stuck in a rut Sean? You were heard the first time. Repeating yourself just proves how little you actually have to say. Now as you were told before. At today’s birth rate there won’t be enough workers to pay yours and mine pensions in the years to come. For some reason you chose to ignore this but you won’t be when you are freezing in your little house in your dotage, bitching about how you have nothing for food or heat and relying on the kindness of charity volunteers who were children when you wrote this tirade against their births. You will then realise how much of an egit you were back then, but then again, hindsight is twenty twenty. They are our future, yours and mine, and we need as many of them as we can get. You will probably just repeat yourself again but do try not to as it is a bit monotonous. Cheers.