Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A NUMBER OF children’s rights groups have hit out at the now likely cut of €10 to child benefit in next Wednesday’s Budget.
Several newspapers say that the government is likely to cut the payment from €140 per child to €130 when Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin deliver the Budget for next year.
The measure will come on top of the standardisation of the payment over the next two years that was announced in last year’s Budget making it €140 for every child in a family.
At present the rate after the first two children rises to €148 for the third child and €160 for the fourth and each subsequent child.
This proposed cut to €130 for every child has drawn criticism from various groups as well as the senator Jillian van Turnhout who is also part of the National Youth Work Advisory Committee.
She told TheJournal.ie: “I don’t support cuts to the child benefit unless there is a compensatory measure that is being put in place like free healthcare or free school books so that we could see that children are benefiting in a way.
The senator said there was no logic to cutting child benefit when this had the potential to affect some parents’ ability to care and provide for their children and potentially push more children into the care of the State.
She added: “For me it’s very like the cuts to home help in that you’re pushing people into hospital, you’re pushing people towards services that cost the State more. A more joined-up government should be looking at the impact of the cuts.”
Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said there was a case for reform of child benefit but that this should be phased and he said that the charity opposed a “large cut” to child benefit.
“There is a case for reform – and there is an argument that better-off families could do with a little less child benefit in order that poorer families could get more support,” he said.
“But if the payment is being reformed, this be must be phased in over the next three to four years, and basis of reform must be totally clear.
“Child benefit cannot be reformed simply to save money for the Exchequer, or to give it back to the troika – that would be socially irresponsible.”
Minister or Social Protection Joan Burton had been considering a report which suggested that child benefit be cut to €100 per child with additional supports for those on low incomes but this appears to have been rejected in favour of an across the board cut.
Children’s Rights Alliance legal and policy director Maria Corbett said that her organisation was committed to the idea that child benefit remained a universal payment and said that it was “more important than ever”.
She said: “We accept that the Payment could be reformed to better protect poorer families. However, we refuse to entertain the notion of an arbitrary cut to the Payment, without targeted extra support to poorer families. Until that time, the Child Benefit Payment is off limits.”
Im in the middle of doing an assignment on Bitcoin.
My conclusion after reading – its the greatest bubble since 17th century tulips, but at least when your tulip lost all its value you still had a tulip.
Tulips can’t be instantly sent to the other side of the world for zero cost without using a middle man. You can always get more tulips but bitcoin is finite.
Eh, actually no, you didn’t.
1000000 Bitcoin = 295,278,006,778 Zimbabwe Dollar
I’ve read numerous articles about bitcoin and the more I read, the less I know or understand about it. Almost like a non existent fantasy currency that many will buy into only to lose it all.
You picked an appropriate surname there, David.
Tulips are still a billion euro industry in Holland alone!
Killian, I suspect you didn’t research too hard!
I going to wait to see what Jim Corr had to say about before i buy any.
Is it the currency of the fightback against the rothchilds and their like or a dead duck,no one knows but Jim.
Early days, but this and other crypto currencies and especially the blockchain technology could help us end the financial terrorists grip on humanity..hope so, the future of our planet depends on it
John Do, nope, future of our planet has no dependence on Bitcoin or any other currency. If Man disappeared/went completely bust/whatever tomorrow, the planet would carry on without us. It simply doesn’t matter whether we are here or not. It came into being without us and will still be here long after we’re gone.
Whenever someone says; “It’s to save the planet”, you know they’re talking horse puckey and need a slap.
The journal must have a serious mining rig going on in the office with all these articles about crypto currencies ;-) . Does the the journal accept bitcoin donations I wonder?
I was thinking the same thing myself. I was thinking that the owners of the Journal were possibly early adapters to bitcoin and stand to make a fortune if the value goes up significantly!
Virtual currencies will never work. Card less transactions will work as we are miving that way. But unregulated currencies are silly you you might as well invest in somali dollars lol.
Fools and their money. ……
I think the early/mid 2000s was the time to invest in somali shilling. But if you’re implying that national currencies are volatile, is this not more of a reason to pursue on line currencies?
Hopefully up to $10,000 a coin and I’ll be able to out the feet up for the rest of my life.
It’s the one world currency and the mark if satan
*of
Interesting. I would have thought that any new means of ‘currency’ that would challenge the xxxxxxx’s empire would have been quickly taken down (by all means possible) or taken over or maybe ‘they’ are behind it in the first place.
Two families own over half of the debt/ money that exists today.
Remember, anyone who has moved away from this debt based currency has had a bullet placed in their head.
Dunno.
Remember the sandwich shop rule:
When the guy making your sandwich is talking about buying a commodity, that’s the time to sell all you have and cash out.
“Gee Seamus, silver is really going to go up because of….(insert rationale here).
“So how much silver do you want, Sandwich Man?”
Bitcoin is approaching or has passed that critical indicator, in my opinion.
I started mining bitcoins 4 years ago on 5 old pc’s in my comms room, running 24/7 :) good investment! only problem now is silkroad can’t be trusted and I don’t need a hitman
Bitcoin is AltaVista / BigFoot of the early 90′s. Quarkcoin is the Google of Crypto.
Gold, Silver Crypto…way to go.
Thank you. Head was wrecked thinking I heard of bitcoin in the 90′s. Did I? Cause I’m still not sure because in the article it says bitcoin came out in 2009
I’ll break it down for you. I was making the comparison with the early search engines that died in the 90s. Google trumped the lot later. Other cryptos will trump bitcoin in due course.
This still means I think I heard the words bitcoins years ago
Blah blah blah blah. Bitcoin. Blah blah blah.
Will change the way we trade.biggest invention of mankind since the internet itself.
So if one bitcoin is worth €600 then it makes the cup of coffee in that Canadian coffee shop very expensive. And how do they give you change? Littlebitcoins ?
If you’re sick of bank charges I suggest you read, research Bitcoin, get yourself a wallet (no cost…blockchain.info). Then in a week get yourself €10-€20.
Decimalisation.
The reason why Bitcoin is flourishing is because the financial framework the banks have in place in Ireland are prehistoric. Bitcoin and it’s protocols are the way of the future. Everything is going digital, why should currency be any different.
In the bigger picture the history of the world shows us that governments control is really the control is money. Bitcoin takes done of that control back. But at the same time some regulation is needed for it to become truly mainstream.
Bitcoin gives the power back to the people, it allows trade worldwide and transfer of funds in seconds with virtually no fees and no middle men – that can’t be said about any other currency.
The fact Bitcoin circulation is capped unlike the € which can be printed anytime, the volatility will decrease over time. So although we have seen bubbles, in this case they will deflate – not burst completely.
It takes some time to understand Bitcoin and how it has evolved, the more you learn about it the more you will conclude it’s cutting edge technology at the highest degree.
With multi-million Euro investments throughout the world in this sector and at payments industry in general Bitcoin is here to stay. We are at the beginning of an exciting time – the digital age has really just begun.
Irish Bitcoin Association.
http://www.BitcoinIRL.com
You need a better sales pitch, my friend.
Any currency is finite if the controlling authority so wishes, money supply can be reduced as well as expanded. If bitcoin becomes “mainstream” what exactly would change? I’m genuinely interested. Having an extra/cheaper means of processing cross border transactions is hardly a new earth shattering idea. Trillions of dollars/gbp/eur/chf etc transactions take place “electronically” every day. Transactions costs in high value transactions between financial companies are tiny compared to what high street banks charge. How would bitcoin change that?
I’m over bitcoin, 42coin from here on.
Kittecoin is the new craze now….buy millions
More waffle. Anything to suck the life out of the average person.
I’m adopting a wait and see approach to the currency. I personally feel that it’s not a currency (yet). It is a great online payment system though, and could give PayPal a run for their money.
I do think as well that Bitcoin could be de-throned as the king of the cryptos if someone like Google were to introduce their own coin. It’s very early days in the crypto currency space, and I’m following it very closely.
The next step is Kilobitcoin, then Megabitcon or they might decide to go Bytecoin but an octal based numbering system will take some time to catch on.
There’s already a bytecoin
have your say