Naughton: ‘Replace child benefit with school attendance payment’

A multi-million euro child-benefit scam is not being tackled by ministers, a TD has warned.

Denis Naughten says 1,500 children registered as attending primary school never make it to secondary education.

While part of the figure may be due to emigration, Mr Naughten — now anindependent TD after being thrown out of the Fine Gael parliamentary party for opposing health cuts — believes the rest of the so-called children are invented as part of a benefits scam.