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CHILDREN’S MINISTER FRANCES Fitzgerald has remained tight-lipped on plans for Child Benefit in Budget 2014.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, she said there had been “no discussions” in her party about the payments ahead of this October’s budget.
“Fine Gael wants to see children and families protected in this budget,” she said, but added that there are going to be difficult decisions to be made.
Sharing her personal opinion, Fitzgerald said she did not want to see Child Benefit cut.
Reports this morning suggested that a row had erupted within the coalition because of a divergence of views on this issue.
Social Protection Minister Joan Burton told the Sunday Independent that she did not expect there will be cuts to the monthly payments.
In last year’s budget, Child Benefit payments were cut by €10 per child for the first and second children, and by €18 for the third child. At €20, the cut for the fourth-born is even higher.
Currently, the payment for the first, second and third child will be €130. The payment for the fourth child will be €140 but this will be reduced to €130 in January 2014 (as part of Budget 2013 measures).
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“Fine Gael wants to see children and families protected in this budget,”
What about all of the other austerity budgets you and your cohorts pushed through to make families and children pay for the gambling debts of private institutions?
More kite flying to see how the public react.
Here we go couple of months of rumour, rumour, rumour. Just to see how we all react.
Maybe we should throw a few rumors of our own into the loop. 65% tax on ex-government pensions? What…
95%.
See how the public react!!! You would get more of a reaction out of a corpse.
Child benefit should be scrapped.
Sweet Matt! Lets deepen the recession and spending power of people a little more… That’ll fix it!!
Stop David your making me blush
I don’t get why so few people get the whole concept…
When a family receives a child benefit, that cash is spent in the economy. Various and numerous taxations occur on that money through its cycle thus sending a huge chunk of it back to the exchequer but employment has been created by shopkeepers, producers, etc in the process..
This creates it’s own revenue stream and associated VAT/taxation and the taxation cycle begins again. This would not have happened had the money not have been spent in the first place..
If you reduce the amount of money spent, you reduce employment, therefore reduce what you take in in vat/tax
Now if you reduce (or scrap) that payment as you suggested the devastation that would occur to local producers/sellers would be catastrophic..
Lets say the government reduce the payment by €10, that’s €10 that they still have in their pocket to begin with but without that €10 being spent locally there will be no extra hires therefore no extra tax generated from new hires.. Instead of creating a contributor they are creating a welfare recipient..
@ Matt
You should be scraped
I’m a single mother of 2, I’ve worked since I was 15 years old had have paid tax since then, I even went back to work early after my second rather then ask for help with my mortgage. Last year I lost my job as my boss had to let someone go because of all the new cuts to pharmacys and last in last out, id been working there for 8 years and never had so much as a sick day, it was a lovely a lovely shop to work in. I’m now on loan parents as I’ve no choice any job I have been offered is minimum wage which means I can’t afford child care and I’m sick of people making me feel like dirt because of this believe me as much as I love my kids I find it very hard to stay at home with them 24/7 oh and I also forgot to mention I had to sell my car as I couldn’t afford it anymore and needed to buy a new gas boiler for my house as I wasn’t covered under my house insurance (when I feel I should of been) after I had a leak, now I can’t get a loan for because I’ve fallen behind on my mortgage repayments, I’ve tried all 5 pharmacy my town for a job I got a few days here and there in one pharmacy when they were really stuck, I’m my wits end and these comments just make me feel sick, somebody tell me what you expect me to do, sorry for rant buts it’s really not black and white and of it wasn’t for cb I couldn’t afford to pay a penny off my mortgage
no disrespect but why isn’t the father contributing towards his children?
Don’t understand why I got thumbs down for this remark, I am not having a go at Izzy Lady and ,can appreciate that she has contributed and is trying to make ends meet it must be an awful worry for her. But too often men leave the responsibility and worry to the mother and it’s not right they walk away without paying for their children and should be made accountable too.
I do think the Government pensions and unvouched expenses should be looked at and taxed..only yesterday was an item in the paper saying that they can claim €1,000 a month in unvouched travel even if they are only 4km from the Dail and cycle to it daily so there is a terrible imbalance. I don’t want to see money taken from children, elderly and special needs I DO want it to be taken from Government.
Here we go again, the same ole discussion pre budget, I expect it to be cut by another €10 for all & yet we will have to listen to those expressing the need for it to be means tested or taxed (which I am in favour of) but again this will be discussed and discussed on every talk show/current affairs programme – to what point, cause as usual there will be no real reform in this area..so those that need this most will lose out as usual.
This is hard one to get the head around, but it may be important: if child benefit is paid only to the less well-off, then this is equivalent to penalising (in a mathematical rather than legal sense) the less well-off for NOT having children. Since having children costs a lot more than is covered by child benefit, the potential result of means-testing child benefit could be to incentivise, relatively speaking, having children born into situations that are less able to cope financially. So although means-testing looks like it has to make sense, the maths may be saying something entirely different.
Why should i have to pay for other people’s children. If you can’t afford them. Don’t have them.
Because said children will be working to pay for you in your old age.
Wrong sweetheart. I pay more than enough taxes and money into my pension to pay for myself!!
Matt . 16 years ago when I had my daughter I was well able to afford her but in case you didnt notice from the cave you obviously live in things have changed since then . And furthermore I am a full time working single parent who asks or recieves nothing from you or the government , so excuse you for your ignorant and self centered attitude !
matt if you really believe all your taxes and pensions will go to paying for you when your old and gret, then ur as deluded as those that trust politicians on this website. Without the future generations here to work and prop up the pension funds, Ireland will up like japan if its not careful and ageing population and no one to help pay for them
A child is for life. Not just 16 years. If you cannot afford children don’t have them. You receive childrens allowance. Money from the government/taxayer!!
Tom. I wont depend on a state pension or handouts. As i said i will pay for myself in old age as i do today!
Well Matt . Its good to know that if any woman is ever stupid enough to have your children that you will be declining your share of the child allowance :) ps . Do you really think your pension scheme will be much use to you when you need it , especially considering you will more than likely be declining the government , pension also , after all my daughter wont be working and paying taxes to keep you in your old age !
Fair play Matt. I’d love to be able to forfeit the state pension like you propose to do.
Well for you isn’t it? So you’ll be giving back your free travel pass and medical card then, yes? And you won’t be availing of fuel allowances or HSE grants to adapt your house for you, God forbid you’d need it of course. You won’t take one cent off the state? Good man!
Your up to date with all the freebies.
Good man Matt. Let me guess your a chiselled Greek god like fella who gets women every week ???? Only a fella who can’t get laid would come up with a fabulous statement like that.
John if you saw me you would want me :)
Haha Matt , I can see it now .. you , old , alone , miserly , lonely and loaded …. good luck with that ! Hope it all works out for ya .
And you will have your kids to wipe your ass.
If you were able to read as well as you can insult people you would be able to see that I said daughter which is singular so no my ‘children’ wont be wiping my ass .
Fair play matt.
Look at the Irish stereotypes at it again, loathing someone who has been successful and doesn’t need state handouts ever. Pathetic
If you can’t take it sweetheart don’t give it!!
Dont worry pet , I can take it :)
I admire anyone who is successful in life , however I think it is wrong to stereotype people who have children and do an honest weeks work , im not sitting on my ass robbing the taxpayers , I pay plenty of tax and my pensions every week I am entitled to the allowance just like the aforementioned people who never done a days work in their lives .
That’s because I don’t live under a rock Matt. I work full time and pay my way. Why shouldn’t I claim CB? Say what you like, my daughter will be paying your pension. I’m quite confident that when your state pension is dangled in front of you, you’ll grab it with both hands and keep it in the bank with your Communion money.
Means testing for someone on a relatively low wage can mean disaster , means testing for someone who never worked in 25 years and they are secure. How is that fair ?
Matt … “As i said i will pay for myself in old age as i do today!”
that is an interesting statement. On assumption you have no children, your finances today are in much better state than they would be if you had children – fair comment? No education expenses, no medical expenses etc and indeed thats a lify style choice.
But your assertion that you will pay for yourself in old age is reliant on others to take on the expense of having kids and educating them to a standard where they can provide these services to you. You do contribute to this cost by paying taxes to help contribute a small percentage of bringing up kids. The key being a small percentage of this cost. You will need the services of our children some day be it only to “wipe your ass”.
Many different life style choices have their different pros and cons. 100 years down the road – I believe that the parents of Ireland will have made a generous donation to the future of the country.
mats parents obviously didnt collect the childrens allowance for him, every child in the country got it
Well said on every count Matt. More like you I say, those who will speak their mind and not give a rats about all this politically correct crap going around. You’re dead right. Child benefit. Where do we get them from. Why should taxed money be given to people just cause they have children. Let the parents pay for their brats. Anyone else’ child is of no concern of mine so why should I have to pay for it. And don’t get me started about giving my seat up for pregnant women…..
Feck off Byrne :-D
Matt,in case you have not noticed ,we live in a society ,whereby,we look after those that are less fortunate than ourselves .thats why we have a health service for all (not perfect but it is there for all ) who cannot afford private healthcare.We have schools for all ,we have pensions for all ,we have social welfare for those who need it ,some people forget that nearly all this money goes back into the system in the form of taxes and keeps businesses open who also pay taxes.Unlike those people who move their money out of the country ,this is the REAL black economy ,and you can bet some of your money went there whether you know it or not.If you take into account the billions of euro that went into the black hole that we call banks ,we are actually getting a return on child benefit.
Any social welfare benefits should be only paid to people who contributed or contribute to the system and also based on amount / duration of these contributions. This nonsense can’t go on forever that people keep living off the state for years and contributed nothing or very little.
Nothing should be free; free = abuse
I feel taxation on social welfare benefits is the way forward- USC etc. Some people/families are making the equivalent of a large wage from benefits, when drawing multiple payments from multiple schemes legitimately. A reasonable cap on benefits like in the UK would also be nice.
Also doing degrees of disabilities – 50% 75% 100% etc to give different payments for different disabilities.
Also need to have worked minimum 10 years in Ireland to be able to retire on invalidity pension abroad(payable to those not resident).
For many hard-working, middle class families child benefit is the only state payment that they are in receipt of.
Labour should hold firm on this issue. FG have taken their austerity agenda to its limits and need to get real.
Yeah like they did last couple of budgets, remind me of their pre-election red line issue again? How did that work out again?
just cut the child benefit to any child not bothered to live in the country………………..oh wait thats right in the eyes of the pc brigade that is “racist”.
Child benefit for the 1st child, after that your on your own, the state (taxpayers) should not be financing children, if you can’t afford then don’t have any, I know one girl on her 4th, she is not unemployed cause she never worked in her life, she is living comfortable and now looking for a 4 bed house compliments of the taxpayer…shocking government policy!
And this is the type of person that makes my blood boil. Get off your arse, get a job, contribute to society and then claim your CB to your heart’s content. But to expect handouts when you’ve never worked is a disgrace.
your parents got it for you when you were a child, people that spout off about not having children conveniently overlook the fact that they benefited from it when they were children…
Wealthier parents used child benefit to put their children in college so that they could get good jobs and then they can slag off those who get it now.
Nobody should be paid to breed. It’s ridiculous. Look after your own.
the “breeders” as you refer to ,are providing the taxpayers of the next generation…we need them.
child benefit does’ent even come close to cover costs of children and if everyone stops “breeding” who looks after us as we age and need help?
I disagree man, system is abused with the ‘mickey money’ brigade. It’s a joke. Single mothers with 4 kids and 3 dads. It’s like a business to them. I see plenty of it.
@ capt
Why don’t you stand outside the post office with I sign explaining your views and come back and tell us how you got on I believe it’s 1st Tuesday of the month
daresay if capt did,it’d be like die hard2
Its called freedom ,look at the banking ”business” it will cost us 67billion ,and the children who are born to this generation will be paying it,child benefit is the least of your worries.In fact people may need to breed at a very fast rate.,or better still ,those born after the boom should be exempt from paying back bailout monies that this generation borrowed.
Why are we being tormented with budget talk in July, the weather has put in a better mood and the government has to take it away
Emigrate to pastures new and leave the depression and shite behind. Gathering me arse.
Child benefit should be capped at the first two children and if a couple are bringing in over 80,000 a year then they shouldn’t get any child benefit at all. Why we are giving it to people who don’t need if I don’t know. There a woman I know who banks it every months for her sons university fees when he’s a lot older.
Clever investment into the future economy by that lady.
Still better than some I know spend in in liquor store…
Same bu**shi* every budget. Enda is going to fuc* us over more but have the gaul to say the worst is over and next year budget wont be bad of x and y are performing.
Now the truth is we HAVE NOT seen the worst yet.
1 The pension funds deficit make the bank issue look like a small issue. That is been ignored and it is going to bring this country to its knees.
2 The good old mortgage interest rates once the ECB start increasing rates the amount of repossessions and loss to banks os going to go out of control. We have some breathing space there as lomg as euro zone remains flat on growth.
People in this country who’s children reside in another country also get CB. That is a disgrace. I also think rather than means test, they should set a cap on it, say a family earning over €100,000 a year (and that’s some earnings!) shouldn’t receive it. That would save a lot of money. But I can honestly say, as a resident of this country and someone who has worked and paid tax here since I was 16 I don’t feel one bit bad collecting my CB every month, no more than I’d begrudge an older person getting their pension. And anyone who thinks that scrapping it or penalising for having children will improve things? Seriously, where do you think that extra money would go? Back into the government coffers or straight back to Germany is where.
it certainly is a disgrace and should be the very first option to cut, why oh why is this not been looked at? perhaps a reason, answer or debate from the government on this is over due. its also paid at OUR rate. no wonder theyre all coming here. the grass will die, it wont and cant last.
if not cut, it should be paid at the countries rate where the children reside. shouldnt be too hard to prove that, birth certs, school registers etc
There’s no discussion on anything with this totalitarian government. They do what they want and cast aside anybody who disagrees.
This is why we all need to get behind equalitybudgeting.ie. I’m sick of these kiteflying exercises where groups are pitted against each other in a crude popularity contest. It is why lone parents have been so savagely attackedvin recent budgets. We need transparency and accountability in our budgetary process not a fait accomplis imposed by the 4 man economic mgt council and enforced by the party whip system.
Genuine question what is a lone parent?
Theres a big difference between a person whose partner\spouse dies and a person who has children where the second parent walked away from responsibilities.
A parent who’s spouse or partner die is a widow or widower, a loan parent is a person raising a child predominantly alone, the reason for doing this is irrelevant. And the payment is no longer called lone parents its now called one parent family payment which is means tested for Maintenance from the second parent, seeking maintenance is now a requirement to claim this payment.
Thanks Amy … am sure you didn’t mean “loan parent”. Reason is irrelevant so long as maintenence is received.
Due to the concept of having to pay for thousands of children outside of the state its only sensible to reduce this payment. However a method should be found to assist low wage or unemployed parents living in Ireland to a maximum of say 3 kids. The days of rewarding people to have 8,9 or 10 kids should be stopped immediately.
You mentioned two extremes there …
FG wants to protect children and families, f**k off, FG is only interested in saving votes, there will be cuts to children’s allowance, didn’t she say “tough decisions have to me made” that translates to ignore the first part of my statement and the second part means there will be more cuts, more government shite talk
I don’t believe in paying people to have children. It’s a payment that is completely abused by some who consider it to be their “income” and so have more and more children to guarantee the flow of never ending freebies for the can work / won’t work generation. It should be that if you receive welfare that after the first child you should be fined as in many Asian countries.
I think you are talking about 2 different things None – the CB itself when parents use this cash to help pay to support future taxpayers and the abuse of the system. The many abuses of course needs to be stopped.
The usual kite flying.
The bigger picture remains that we need to have enough resources to fund Ireland present & future. Those resources are of many different types – but mainly money and people. Like anything that costs, controls are required.
So first question is – how many children do we need? How many doctors, nurses, gardai etc are required? How many children do we need our families to have? My guess is the 2-3 mark but thats my Drumm estimate. These children will indeed be the taxpayers of the future funding a state pension and providing services – that they themseves will hand over to their children. I believe we need to incentise contributing people to have future contributors. Children are for life and are not cheap to run (free education here is a 500 euro bill each Sept, health insurance for them is another tax of and still haver to pay the GP, clothing, heating etc and thjats when they are children). So state assistance is vital up to the number we need. But anyone wants a family above this needs to fund it themselves. Other controls could include providing a smart card to mother\father spendable in approved shops in Ireland. No child allowance should be leaving that state. There are other controls to ensure the money is used properly.
Lastly – consider 2 household with state pensions living on the same street. One of the couple had no children for whatever reason. The other had 3 children – educated them (and they hopefully haven’t been forced out by future governments); they are working and contributing to the economy in both private\public sectors. The latter couple will have considerable money in the process / the former will have not had these expenses but enjoy the same services. Yes children allowances will have covered a small part of this. So an additional levy on childless couples?
What is the point in the Labour Party!
Oh ye line their pockets!
They are going the way of the green party ,the wrong way.
No matter what happens in the next budget, people of Ireland, remember this:
- We have to maintain our international reputation
- We must get back to the bond markets
This is all that matters to these cretins. Everything else is a sideshow.
I do agree that some abuse it but I think in this day and age, very few have extra children in order to claim the children’s allowance. That’d be like getting a job that pays €50 a day but costs you €75 to get to it. CB is a help but doesn’t near cover what a child costs. Stop wealthy and super wealthy people having it I say.
People who say it should be scrapped are not thinking straight, The government are earning tax from this money that is being paid out kind of like an investment to the future, that’s exactly why they wont scrap it they earn money by it being spent into the economy and of course creating jobs its not that hard to understand. I don’t think it should be means tested it should be equality for all.
People saying scrap it probably have no children and so don’t understand.
Should be capped thought
You had the child you pay for them
Not the taxpayer
…And what will happen yet gain by Labour? More election promises broken. Total u-turns.
Since 2009 there have been four cuts to C.B already – two under this disgusting backstabbing, money robbing from the public, government.
Once again we see the spin doctors pit us against one another, unite and remove these parasites from govt and protect our children and most vulnerable in society.
have your say