Labour motion seeks to protect child benefit

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 12:47 PM

This week in the Dáil will see the House debate a Labour Party motion which seeks to protect Child Benefit in the forthcoming December Budget.

Proposing the motion, Deputy Roisin Shortall, our Spokesperson on Social and Family Affairs, said: "The Labour Party recognises that child benefit accounts for a significant proportion of the social welfare budgets, but there are compelling reasons why it should continue to be a universal payment paid at the current rate.

"Families throughout the country are struggling to make ends meet in the face of the high cost of raising children and the cuts that have already been made to family incomes. In addition, there is no recognition in the Irish tax system of the costs associated with bringing up children."

Roisin went on to say how dismantling the current system of child benefit would be a 'serious mistake'.

If you are on Facebook, there are two specific campaign groups established dealing with this issue, PACUB (you can find out more on their website here) and the Poor Can't Pay.

You can read the wording of the Labour Party Private Members motion tabled by Deputy Roisin Shortall in the following press statement. The debate itself can be viewed as it happens live (from 7pm - 8.30pm on Tuesday evening and from 7pm - 8.30pm pm on Wednesday evening) on the Oireachtas website or indeed from the front page of Irish Election. We will of course as many of the Labour contributions as possible to post here afterwards.

We would also like to hear from you on the issue which you can do in the comments section below.

Tagged with Social & Family Affairs • PMM • roisinshortall