We need to spend more money giving all children a better start

Scrap the child benefit system entirely and start afresh, finding better ways to spend the money, writes Fergus Finlay

Tue, 22 Sep, 2015 - 01:00

Fergus Finlay is a former political activist and adviser to three governments, the former head of the children's charity Barnardos, a writer and a broadcaster.

DEAR Tánaiste, I’m taking the liberty of writing to you because I want you to change your mind about something. I know it’s a promise you’ve already made, and you may feel that it might represent something of a loss of face if you were to abandon it now. But it’s not a huge change I’m asking you to make, and it could perhaps do a lot of good.

It was your colleague, Brendan Howlin, who announced in last year’s Budget that the Government had decided to increase child benefit by €5 per child, and that the Government hoped to repeat that again this year. Since then, I gather that the increase has been more or less agreed — it’s one of the “givens” we can expect from the Budget in a few weeks’ time. It will be an increase this year of €60 per annum per child.