Child Benefit to rise from January

Child Benefit is to increase by €5 per child from next January with a promise of an identical rise in 2016 so long as the economic recovery continues.

The increase is the first since Budget 2008 when the payment rose to a record €160 for the first and second child and €203 for third and subsequent children.

A series of reductions, the standardisation of the payment so that the same rate was paid for every child, and the phasing out of payments for 18-year-olds in full-time education all followed.