There will no second-tier child benefit scheme introduced in the forthcoming budget, the Minister for Social Protection has said.
Dara Calleary said work on the detail of such a scheme has been done by his department but will not be complete in time for this year’s budget, which is to be delivered on October 7th.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme, the Minister said he envisages bringing forward such a scheme by this time next year.
A Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) report in June found the number of children living in consistent poverty had increased by 45,000 in a year to 103,000. An Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study the same month suggested a second-tier child benefit costing €772 million a year would lift 55,000 children out of income poverty and 25,000 children out of consistent poverty.
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Reacting at the time to the CRA study, Taoiseach Micheál Martin had appeared to suggest a second-tier allowance was being considered for introduction in Budget 2026.
“We need to make sure that this increase turns out to be a temporary spike out of line with the overall trend,” he said. “Therefore, for Budget 2026, I’ve asked my ministerial colleagues to plan and to come forward with measures that will really make the difference to the most vulnerable families and children and to target resources appropriately.”
On Sunday, however, Mr Calleary said: “We just need to look at the supports already in place in addition to the universal child benefit. We have the child support payment, which is paid in addition to child benefit to those on the lowest incomes. We are investing €780 million annually in the child support payment. It assists about 329,000 children.”
He said a second-tier of the child benefit payment is “something that we are looking at within the department, and my officials are doing a lot of work on it”. However, he said proposals on it would involve a “complete rejig of existing payments”.
“What I want to make sure is, firstly, that nobody loses out by introducing a new payment, and, secondly, we have to look at where you would bring in the tiers, where to bring in the cut-off and ensure the working families who are currently being supported by the working family payment don’t lose out either,” he said.
That work will not be complete in time for Budget 2026, he said.
“I’m confident that we will be in a position to bring a proposal to Government in advance of Budget 2027 but, in the meantime, we’re not walking away from the problem,” he said.
This year €320 million will be invested in hot school meals in primary schools. By the end of this calendar year, every primary school will have access to the meals. These are an example of “non-income supports”, which the Government is “expanding ... across the board”, he said.
