TAOISEACH HAS given his strongest signal yet that this year’s budget will include some form a second tier in child benefit. 

At Child Poverty and Well-being Summit in the Aviva Stadium, when asked if the government will adopt the Economic and Social Research Institute’s (ESRI) recommendation that the government should introduce a second rate of child benefit, he said:  

“I’m working on that. I had a discussion last evening with the Minister of Social Protection and these officials. We will do something on that, or equivalent to that. There are complexities in terms of getting such a system up in place that we don’t want anyone to lose out,” he said.

He explained that government wants to ensure that those on existing payments that are beneficial to children and vulnerable families don’t lose out if they get the new payment.

“So there’s a bit of work to be done in terms of devising a new system and so on. But to all intent and purposes, that’s the kind of direction we we want to go down,” he added. 

Earlier in the week, a new report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that a second tier of child benefit targeting low income households “could lift more than 50,000 children out of poverty”.

The estimated cost is around €772 million, but researchers say it’s a “price worth paying, not just for the immediate benefits but the opportunity it offers to end the cycle of intergenerational poverty”.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has said he is a “signed-up believer” to introducing a second tier of child benefit, while Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said he has always acknowledged that there are “merits in such an approach” of introducing a second tier for child benefit.

However, he said there is “a very significant cost attached to it” that has to be considered as part of the budget process.

Jobseekers 

Separately, on the issue of not giving those on jobseekers a bump in the budget, as has been suggested by those in the Fine Gael camp, the Taoiseach said officials in the Department of Social Protection have advised him that those who lose their jobs and are unemployed are “at risk of poverty more than others”.

“That’s the clear message that was given to me yesterday by experienced people in the social protection field and people in my own social poverty unit. So I heeded that,” he said. 

In his speech at today’s conference, he told attendees: “In social welfare, we have committed to progressively increasing income supports for low-income families, including exploring a second tier of child benefit.”

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Asked whether he would he would push against Fine Gael’s position that those on jobseekers should not get a rise along with other social welfare recipients, such as pensioners, in this year’s budget, Martin said he would be discussing these issues with ministers. 

“First of all, people who lose their jobs. It’s a fluid situation, so it’s not the same people seeking Jobseekers’ Allowance every year. People become unemployed, then they get work again, but in that period when they’re unemployed and on Jobseekers’ Allowance, they are at risk of poverty more than others,” he said. 

That was the “clear message” he has received from his officials, he said, adding:

We’ve got to be very careful that anything we do doesn’t exacerbate their risk of poverty.

Previously, the Taoiseach told The Journal that that he doesn’t like “drawing distinctions” between those on social welfare.

“I’ve never been into that characterisation of people on welfare. I’ve never been into that politics,” he said.