What about the “new poor”? People who are still working but after having suffered pay cuts are struggling to pay the mortgages on their negative equity homes, are suffering the expenses associated with working and are paying the equivalent of another mortgage in crèche fees – and that’s if they only have one child. It’s getting to the point that only the very rich and the poor will be able to afford to have children. There is no fair way of cutting child benefit.

Middle income Ireland suffers again.

This will squeeze the middle again.

1,000 million euro is being paid to bond holders today. €1,000,000,000. But that’s ok, the kids are gonna pay for it.

If this happened I would have to quit work because there is no way we could afford child care without having the allowance. We both work but pay more than the amount for an average mortgage in child care for 2 kids!

cut all pensions for the lst govt and current…..and all perks….watch the money roll in..slash and burn

JP . I said full time creche place. Your reply was a typical Loud Left standard reply. Our local community creche has 6 places taken up by a family who abuse the welfare system. 12 kids and neither parent has ever had a job. and yes they so sit around all day drinking and engaging in anti social behaviour in our estate. But If anyone criticizes them there is always a militant left voice box shouting to defend them.

Thinking of taking money off children to pay for the mistakes of the grown-ups – from a coalition of Fine Gael and Fine Gael lite.

I agree with all the comments that only the “poor” and the rich can have kids….recently went to view a community creche…when I told them I was working they told me that full time places were for those on social welfare!!!
If the government choose to cut child benefit why don’t they bring in tax credits for parents who are working and using crèches…means 2 parents can work, pay tax, prsi and creating more jobs in the childcare sector.
I want to work and enjoy work, like many mothers, but am faced with the prospect of having to give up when I have a 2nd child…yet I see neighbours in council houses, havent worked in years having 4 and 5 children.

I saw a heroin addict last week walking with a new born baby in a pram out on a road nearly killing the child.

These people should be paid to be sterilised like in America does the government really think people like this spend child benefit on their children ?

Cutting the Child Benefit by E40 per person could push those who are already struggling with financial problems over the edge and for those that are well off, it will make no difference.

Child Benefit should not be paid to people who do not need it and a ‘blanket cutting’ of all Child Benefit is the easy way out for the Government!

There are a lot of well paid and rich people who do not need this benefit and a system should be worked out so that they would not be paid it, but the Government do not seem to want to bring about such a change!
Why?

In any case., there is a simple way of ensuring that this cutting of benefits does not happen and it is as follows;
If you feel strongly that the cutting of child benefit is wrong and that it will have an adverse effect on your child and on your finances, simply Email, Phone or tell your local Government TD., or Minister, that should this decrease in child benefit happen, that you might have a problem voting for them again!

If enough people do this, I bet you will not see this cutting of child benefit coming into force, because all politicians want to protect their seats in the Dáil.

Typical of this government to take from the most vulnerable yet again! Isn’t it today that another €1billion is handed over to unsecured & anonymous bond holders? My wife & I recently welcomed our 2nd child however she was made redundant before her maternity leave started so in 6 months time I have no idea what we’re going to do to be honest. On a side note I’m surprised that the “ye shouldn’t have kids often can’t afford them etc” brigade aren’t on here commenting. Must be too early for them or they all start their high flying well paid jobs a lot earlier than the rest of us mortals.

Of course the poor can afford to have children cos they get every hand possible leaving them in a position not having to work. Its doesn’t pay to be honest and hard working in this country.

JP. your right in a lot of what you say But the blanket defence of all welfare recipients is falling the legitimate recipient’s. My vision is this.. Reward those who contribute to society, support those who cannot and punish those who won’t. Currently our system is working the opposite way and needs to be changed.

why not apply this principle to taxation in stead of what is meant to a universal payment to children.

Ah yes, pay the bondholders and starve the children! What have we become, Yes men for Europe!

That’s way to logical and simply for the Irish government to implement. ^^

This comment will be unpopular but it may solve something. Teachers work until 3 or 4 o clock etc. they are always ridiculed about this and the defence is they do work in the evenings to prepare. Can this work not be carried out at school on a longer day allowing kids to stay at school and do their homework etc. This could be a good compromise to lowering teachers pay etc. this solves the child minding issue many parents have, gives teachers a window to prepare, allows parents work a normal day (pay tax etc) and parents can spend quality time with children as they have homework done.

I think it is time that middle Ireland stands up to this government. When are they going to realise that you cannot just judge someone’s income just by numbers on a page anymore. It is people’s outgoings that are causing the problems and whether people agree or not many people are in extreme debt due to the recession. We are now facing a situation where if only one parent works, it will not be enough to sustain a family but in the first five years of the child’s life if both parents work, the childcare costs are crippling. The most sensible and obvious thing to do then would be to award tax credits for childcare as people who are not working would not benefit from this and it might make it possible and affordable for both parents to work. The average PAYE worker whether they are public or private sector is by far the worst hit in this recession and all universal cuts and charges affect them the most. In the public system, you now have a situation where retired staff are earning more than working people who are the parents and mortgage holders this is not and cannot be right. The government has to address it. Middle Ireland needs to learn from the older people, and bombard the government with their issues and complaints.

Why isn’t child benefit means tested?

It seems insane that you could have a couple earning 100k between them and they get child benefit, if they can’t get by during a year on 100k without child benefit then they seriously need to look at what they are spending their money on!

I can’t believe that the wealthy here get CB, just like the poor, working class and middle class. I suppose they use it to purchase a decent bottle of wine, or one expensive cigar.

The government honestly have no clue, no imagination. Their big plan to squeeze some more money out of it’s people was to introduce a house tax and water tax. What’s next, air tax, tax the path outside my home, or perhaps tax my body. ‘Asleep at the wheel’ sums them up, in my opinion.

When I see the likes of Greece on the news in uproar over the cuts being made to their country and how it will affect their lives,I do be thinking “good on ye” but I do often wonder why the good ppl of Ireland sit back and just let changes happen. Too complacent…in fact I’d go so far to say the ppl of this country would do well under communism.!!!

What about that one billion Mr Noonan?

I have to contest the statement that community childcare places are reserved for the unemployed. Having worked in community childcare and administered the schemes I can say that the places are equally open to all and that it is only the reduction in fees that are reserved for people on social welfare payments, be it carers allowance, medical card holders or people on fis or whatever the current guidelines are. Any working person is equally allowed to use the service. Perhaps someone here either misheard what they were told or is disgruntled about their local place being full up or not qualifying for the reduction in fees and is misrepresenting the sector as a way to strengthen the argument that people on social welfare have all the pieces of the pie.

we have 5 children and our cb covers our esb bills, phone bills, doctor fee at 50euro a pop. drugs payment scheme. car tax and insurance for 2 cars, our wages only cover shopping, the roof over our head and fuel for the cars so my husband can work and i can bring my kids to school. so if de government cut this money it Will mean either my husband give up work or i keep my kids home from school. cause in reality we need esb, we live in de country so we need a phone and we need food. i can assure you neither of us drink or smoke and its not fair to penalise those of us that are just trying to live.

Why not cut the TDS expenses to €100 a month, fuking disgraceful like trying to take every penny off of already struggling families.

They are claiming over €50,000 a year when their already on a salary of over €100,000 for what????

Yet every time they get the chance their cutting our money down bit by bit but its alrite so long as they swan around without a care in the world.

A joke of a government!

I mean enda Kenny spent 25000 e in a pub on “expenses” in one night. Give the citizens of Ireland €25000 nd I guarantee it wouldn’t be wasted down the pub.

And if we don’t get these people out now and change the way the system works, once their there over 2 years they can also claim pensions of over 100,000 even though the pension age is 65.

The hole system needs reform nd first thing is for these shower of hypocrites to be told to F**k off as they done nothing but gave us empty promises, then done nothing but introduced a load of taxes charges etc etc.

A working Irish citizen lives off approx €35,000 a year and ye have the cheek to tell us that this budget will be the toughest ever, we,re hearing the same line since 2008 but we don’t see ye taking any payouts.

The wages and expenses of the dail are absolutely fukin ridiculous, I wouldn’t mind if they were actuali working for the people but their NOT, why don’t they pay the debts of the banks themselves their making 3 times more than what we do.

Yet we are just leaving them come at us with everything and bearing the brunt of it.

They will have us back in the times of the famine while they swan around with their ridiculous wages even though it is not the people of Ireland,s debt.

They make me sick.

http://www.change.org/petitions/supporting-the-irish-nation-step-down-from-government

Remember when Richard Tol wrote a report for the ESRI which suggests there is too little incentive to work for those with children? Instead of recognising the truth of the report and grasping the obvious problems for the economy, the govt quickly slapped down the report and had it pulled from the ESRI web site.

Now, with the numbers at work shrinking continually, unemployment only kept ‘stable’ at a crippling rate of 15% through mass emigration, the morons in this government decide to take even more measures to squeeze tax out of the working people of Ireland, making life on the dole more and more attractive.

Keep our outrageous public sector pay, keep paying the bondholders, keep paying generous social welfare for life, and try and get the middle class to pay for it all.

Does child allowance ever reach the child? In my experience I normally see it go towards other things – please don’t crucify me – I’m just curious.

@ Michael. It’s easy to tell you have no children yourself do you have any idea of the cost of children? Just because you see someone going out buying something “not child related” on children’s allowance day does not mean the money is squandered and children dong see it, it mean that for the rest of the month Parents are struggling to cover all the bills and look after their children and give them the best life they can and then on that 1 day that there is an extra bit of money the parents can buy something they have sacrificed all month so their children can have clothes food heat and maybe a treat here and there! Means testing this allowance will only crucify the middle class who are already struggling

It’s about time we took to the streets and march. Taxing children to pay the mistakes of bankers in criminal. I have 3 children, both myself and husband are working flat out and o depend greatly on child benefit to help me pay for my children’s needs. We don’t drink, smoke and have been hit with cut after cut. Tax after tax. We can’t sustain anything further.

Thinking of taking money off children to make up for the mistakes of the growing-ups. This from a coalition of Fine Gael and Fine Gael lite. Shame!

Sorry that posted twice 

Another pinch to the middle class, whens it going to stop..we have 5 more budgets with future cuts! Everyone will be on the poverty line before long! Taking away child benifits only hurts the children! Any family who is lucky to have one income at this point is getting higher electricity, gas, tax, USC, property tax, and water bills.. it sure does narrow the gap to maintainin the standard of care you provide to your children…excluding the the child benifit! Another blow to hard working families of Ireland.. This is about the children and not public pay, bondholders etc! Protect our childrens rights.. well that’s just nonsense..EU/Banks/Gov mafia/monoploy fecking it up!

Serious question,whats a low income family? Is it a family on social welfare and all the added perks (and i dont mean the “new unemployed who are out of work because of the recession) or is it a husband and wife wife both working with a total gross income of ?70000?

Just tax it, for goodness sake.

I wonder how much this ”advisory group” gets paid for their services?

About time

Iii

Isn’t it ironic that the government are in the process of bringing into legislation the new children’s act to protect the future of children, yet they are now considering on cutting child benefit which is a necessity for all of us who use this to help clothe, protect and feed our kids. And the government wonder why the population is confused by the mixed messages which are transmitted from Dáil Éireann! The estimated saving is going to have far reaching effects on families than just financial implications alone.