Support children rather than hand a wodge of dosh to every corpse

The bereavement grant of €850 was abolished in 2013 but some politicians are cynically clamouring for its reintroduction, writes Victoria White.

THE ’AUL bereavement grant. Don’t you just love it? I must say I did when I successfully applied for it after my mother’s death some years back.

When I say I “successfully” applied for it I may be misleading you because the only qualification for a bereavement grant is a corpse. I had one. I got the grant. I had never heard of it before but on my mother’s death the forms came my way and I was invited to apply for it, like 22,000 others a year, I went ahead.