Elaine Loughlin: Untargeted payments do not help to tackle child poverty

Lucinda Creighton points out she gets welfare benefits that she does not need, echoing a host of economists who say paying the same benefits to everyone leaves the poorest behind

On a BBC Ulster Red Lines podcast, former Fine Gael minister Lucinda Creighton rightly railed against the recent ‘giveaway’ budget, and the ’nearly €1k’ that arrived in her bank account ‘that I don’t need’, adding that such payments should be targeted to those who need them most. File picture: Niall Carson/PA

"I have three children. Nearly €1,000 went into my account that I don’t need and arguably that I shouldn’t have,” former Fine Gael minister Lucinda Creighton honestly admitted.

“That is replicated up and down the country, all of those payments are landing in people’s accounts, not by coincidence, but by absolute design this month in the weeks leading up to the election,” she told a BBC podcast focused on the general election.