Ahern attacks Fine Gael over childcare claims
In heated Dáil exchanges he disassociated himself from Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan’s claim that Fine Gael was “racist”, but insisted the party’s figures were grossly inflated.
Mr Ahern said the availability of the €1,000-a-year early childcare supplement to migrant workers with dependents under the age of six in their countries of origin extended an EU practice from which Irish people had gained greatly.
“In the past this has benefited Irish people who emigrated to other EU countries with far more generous social welfare systems. Ireland as long benefited and continues to benefit from this,” he told TDs.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny expressed outrage at the racism slur.
“It’s not racist to ask a legitimate question about legitimate tax projections and money going to children’s child care costs in some other countries,” he said.
The Government made it clear it expected a “worse case” take-up of the early childcare supplement to be no higher than €3.5m a year - or 1% of the total.
This was based on the current number of claims from EU workers who have children under six abroad doubling from the current 80 a week to 160.
Social Welfare Department officials said they were confident of the figures as many migrant workers were young single males and the availability of the benefits was already widely known in migrant communities.
Under EU rules, welfare benefits have to be paid to all workers even if the child is living outside the State.
Fine Gael stood by its claims, citing anecdotal evidence from the Polish community in Ireland that up to 25,000 migrant workers could claim the supplement.
Ireland has received €1.7 billion in the past five years from Britain alone under such health and welfare provisions, a Government spokeswoman said.
Green Party childcare spokesman Dan Boyle TD said Irish people abroad were also being helped by their host countries.
“We need to take into account the high standard of childcare infrastructure in other EU countries as opposed to the lower level of provision in Ireland. We need to take account of the net transfer payments given from the EU towards Ireland’s childcare costs.”
Currently, 1,800 EU workers are claiming benefits for 4,000 children living abroad.
