Taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed the Government will introduce a second tier of child benefit in the forthcoming budget, while ruling out additional one-off financial supports for families.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Martin revealed he met with Social Protection Minister Dara Calleary on Wednesday evening to discuss the implementation of the new payment system. “We will do something on that, or equivalent to that [second tier of child benefit],” the Taoiseach stated, though he acknowledged significant work remains to develop the proposal.
The plan faces technical challenges, with Mr Martin emphasising the need to create an entirely new administrative system to manage the second-tier payments. “There are complexities in terms of getting such a system up in place, so we don’t want anybody to lose out,” he explained, adding that this represented the Government’s preferred direction for budget measures.
When questioned about the stagnation of Jobseeker’s Allowance rates compared to other social welfare increases championed by Fine Gael, Mr Martin described the situation as “fluid.” He highlighted advice from social protection experts and his department’s social poverty unit, noting that unemployed individuals face higher poverty risks during their jobless periods.
“The whole purpose here, if there’s a young person unemployed, with children in their family and so on, we’ve got to be very careful that anything we do doesn’t exacerbate their risk of poverty,” Mr Martin said.
The Taoiseach indicated the Government would target resources through various payments to support families struggling with rising food costs, but firmly ruled out further one-off supports, insisting any new measures must operate through existing social welfare structures.