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LAST UPDATE | 1 Oct 2024
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL Protection Heather Humphreys has defended the provision of two double child benefit payments to all families with children this year.
Humphreys said it a family doesn’t need the additional child benefit payments they can give them back.
As part of Budget 2025, an unprecedented two double child benefit payments will be made before Christmas this year, one in November and one in December.
Last year, one double child benefit payment was paid.
Think-tank Social Justice Ireland has criticised the decision to rely on one-off lump sum payments rather than increasing the monthly rate to support low income families.
During a press conference this afternoon, Minister Humphreys was asked what her response is to people who say there is an element of ‘waste’ with these additional payments and that they should have been targeted to families who really need them.
“I wouldn’t see too many people that don’t need it. You might think a lot of people don’t need it, well, if they don’t need it they can give it back,” Humphreys said.
The minister explained the government’s rationale for the decision and said the reason for the two double payments this year is because last year’s payment was “extremely, extremely popular”.
“There’s a lot of pressure on families, let’s face it…Many people said to me that it was a real boost coming up to Christmas,” Humphreys said.
She made the point that the separate child support payment (formerly the Increase for A Qualified Child) is a targeted measure for low income families.
When asked if she accepts that some families are in a position to save their child benefit payment when other families rely on it for day-to-day spending, driving further inequality in society, Minister Humphreys said:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I worked in a credit union for years and people say, ‘oh, millionaires get it [child benefit]‘, I didn’t see too many millionaires. I saw a lot of parents that were damn glad of it. And that’s my view on it. It’s a universal payment, and I can see that it’s a benefit to families, and it helps them.”
When the minister was then asked if many millionaires are typically saving in credit unions, Humpreys said: “Well I saw a few boys with plenty of money”.
“I get this every year. I told you, I worked in the credit union for many years. I didn’t see many millionaires coming in the door. I saw people coming in that door that needed that payment.
“It’s a universal payment. And if you start means tested, you have winners, you love losers.
It has that universal aspect to it and I’m happy that it continues that way,” the Minister said.
It is possible to return unwanted child benefit payments to the Department but it is understood that very few families do.
In an interview with The Journal, Humphrey’s comments were put to Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe.
Donohoe said it is a matter for individuals if they want to give the child benefit payment back to the state, as suggested by Humphreys.
"A small few may not need it, but the vast majority do"
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) October 1, 2024
Minister Paschal Donohoe is asked about Heather Humphreys' suggestion that those who don't need the double child benefit payment can give it back. #Budget2025 pic.twitter.com/Jc7QVchhiX
“This is a measure that is targeted towards those who have children. A small few may not need it, the vast majority do,” Donohoe said.
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Nob
Your loyalty is turning a blind eye when and where we tell you.
@Trevor Hayden:
Wasn’t he the first in Government to turn on. Callinan?
Rightly called him out for his “whistleblowers are disgusting” comment?
Inconvenient I know for you.
@Brinster: ‘first in government’ – I presume what you meant to say is the first in Parliament. Either way you’d be very wrong either way.
It would be great if he practiced what he is preaching
@Brendan Coyne: That’s what I thought also … his blind loyalty to his mate, Frances Fitzgerald comes to mind
@Skybloo: she was cleared of any wrong doing by the tribunal so he did right to stand by her
Report cleared her? Scandal after Scandal dogged her and her predecessor, Like the report concerning Naughten nothing to see here move on… What happened to the investigation relating to the millions missing in the Templemore?.. What happened with the written off penalty points?.What happened to the missing mobile phones and laptops?. The deputy leader of the blueshirts Michael Martin very quite on these subjects.
Will Socky be attending the National Housing Demonstration tomorrow?
@mursim:
Will anyone be attending the national housing demonstration tomorrow?
Jeremy Kyle is on
@Patrick Nolan: I’ll be in the North West for the weekend, is there any regional events on, you know … where there is absolutely no problem with homelessness. Why call it “National” when it is a Dublin specific issue?
@mursim: wait and see
@Patrick Nolan: indeed.
@Gulliver Foyle: Gone on up for the Lundy burning?
That’s why nobody is being prosecuted for harassing a whistleblower almost to his death. Same for the garda in the pub with the rat effigy of MacCabe. No prosecutions ,and that ain’t out of loyalty to the state.
@Picture This: what would you charge the effigy guy with?
@Karen Wellington: super hero!
@Karen Wellington: Sorry Karen. That was meant to call Maurice McCabe a superhero
@Karen Wellington: the images were posted online so online harassment what else ?
@Picture This: I don’t think online harassment is a crime, unless it is tied into a wider (non-online) harassment. Phoning an individual up repeatedly is harassment, while repeatedly posting malicious lies online isn’t (again, due to early precedence when judges didn’t get computers being their interpretation of offences against the person)
@Gulliver Foyle: ask the blogger that was stopped at Dublin airport by detectives for writing negatively about Regina Doherty… by the way its alleged a commissioner sat in a politicians car in a shady car park meeting to tell him your man a kiddy fiddler and you in serious trouble, any excuses for a criminal investigation being initiated there… so regardless to what illegal or not it seems our politicians don’t have an appetite for justice.
@Karen Wellington: Personal injury
Your loyalty is to the State…by becoming a revenue generator…
@Micheal McGee: how much revenue do you reckon the garda dragged down the road in Carrickmackross generated? Or the garda on the drugs squad in Store Street who had acid thrown at him?
@Joe Bloggs: What’s the story on Carrickmacross? Seems to be some confusion as to whether the guard was in the car or being dragged by the car.
@Micheal McGee: indeed.
@Cathal: It wasn’t Carrickmacross,it was Castleblaney
@Mary Garry: Sorry ,just followed previous post. Didn’t notice it was wrong town.
Who’s Leo “ loyal “ to? It’s certainly not the people of this country!
@Colette Kearns: Officially, the taoiseach is loyal to the people. The difference is it is to ALL people, and not just those that share opinion with you (or me, for that matter). Don’t confuse loyalty with treachery.
Your loyalty is to the people of this country who pay your salary. Not to the suit or the person wearing it.
@Patricia McCarthy: I hope you’re one of those people that shout that at guards while you collect your dole…
@peterw: Why would you hope that?
@Dave Doyle: Because people who say “we pay your salary” to garda are absolute twits.
You don’t say that to your nurse do you?
The gardai are there to serve & protect and by in large do a decent job, they don’t need someone shouting nonsense at them.
@ppayment, Exactly my point. The Garda do not need a twit in a suit, who collects the largest social welfare payment, in this country shouting at them. And I don’t need his lackeys attempting to bully me on this page. Get back in your box little man.
Its very hard to take leo at face value. Whatever he says, behind it, he’s probably thinking there’s one set of laws for himself and FG, and there are other laws for everybody else.
@Adrian: He isn’t wrong in thinking that. Politicians and their lackeys get a free ride over everyone else. A lawless unaccountable breed.
One of the main reasons behind the falsified breath tests was a ‘lack of supervision’ . Ethical in all other aspects of the force of course.
I hope to inspire the Gardai, to work as hard as me, to be the shield that protects the taxpayers from the hostile elements of society. I am confident my brilliant wisdom bestowed on these brave people will be used.
Thank you journal for showing these pictures, I am truly Ireland’s most charismatic, most trusted and inspiring leader.
@Socky Varadkar: Go on the Socky ya mad thing!!!
Sh ut up Leo
Hitler said that first.
so Leo is now popping up at the cops passing out parades to give inane motivational talks to new recruits, what next will he be turning up at teachers and nurses conferring ceremonies ?
If he is serious about reform in AGS, then we need less platitudinous blather and more action in relation to the wrongs uncovered by the disclosures tribunal , destined to gather more dust on another shelf in the DOJ
What a tool, his loyalty is to himself and definitely not his position in Government. He makes Enda Kenny’s term as Taoiseach look reasonable. A dreadful leader of Government, caught up with spin and more spin and manipulation of the media. The men of 1916 must be turning in their graves. Country is soulless with the morons in Government and the tool from Cork is a disaster. A bumbling gobsh@te
What a plonker he’s worse than Bertie he’d turn up at the picking of a. Snot if he get a photo op and at least Bertie never looked down his superior nose at you – off course the uniform didn’t safe Maurice McCabe as it was those in uniforms who pilloried him
Their loyalty should be to the people of the republic of Ireland.
In fairness, Leo would know a lot about loyalism, seeing as he’s been spending so much time recently wearing orange and meeting with his new BFFs in the lodge.
@European Bob: *wearing orange socks ☺
Your suit says nothing about you Mr.Socks .
FFS shut your trap Varadkar
Hypocritical gimp!
Put TD pay increases aside and give the increases to the front line staff!
indeed
You tell them you unelected clown
Your loyalty is to the uniform and not the person wearing it…
Some lines from Shaw to stew on. Pick out your own gems but I like “not intelligent, only opinionated” and “not loyal… only servile” or, how about “not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic.”
“Your friends are all the dullest dogs I know. They are not beautiful: they are only decorated. They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed. They are not educated: they are only college passmen. They are not religious: they are only pewrenters. They are not moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not even vicious: they are only “frail.” They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self-controlled, only obtuse; not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only propitiatory; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all: liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls.”
Sodamite speaks
The gardi are a digrace to their uniform they should be disbanded as were the ruc
Too much corupption for too many years,
For people to have any respect for them they need a new name and a new begining
And its the ones at the top of the force are poisoning the the ones at the bottom, terrible for a country not to have faith in their own police force, it demoralizes the whole country
Loyalty to the people should be shown for the past as well as the present. It seems that the past has been forgotten about as far as Leo and Drew is concerned. I’m sure they know what I mean.
It takes a lot of manpower to generate over 2 million fake breath tests and nobody lost their job over it. Appatently it was a crime too widespread to investigate !! No sacking over the Templemore financial wrongdoing . No sacking over the scrubbing of penalty points for Gardai and family members . GRA were quiet boys when Sgt McCabe was persecuted.
A grossly overpaid bunch of whingers layabouts and incompetents.
Indeed. Let’s see what happens this guy https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1122487727899947&id=100004161915324
that’s a laugh coming from a man who is not even irish running our country into the ground
have your say