BUDGET 2016: Poorest children let down by the budget

No mention of child protection in budget statements a concern

The Government has been accused of giving a pre-election €5 to every family in the form of child benefit and ignoring calls to target resources at the poorest children.

One Family, Ireland’s largest organisation for one-parent families, said the Government should be doing everything it could to help poor children.

However, Budget 2016 had let families down again.

Childrens Minister James Reilly said introducing means testing on child benefit now was not something that the Government was in a position to achieve in the short run-in time they had in relation to a budget.

While he accepted that people had concerns about child benefit, he thought it was a very “child-friendly” budget. He pointed out that all children would benefit from the increase in child benefit.

The €5 increase will see child benefit increase to €140 for each child per month from next January.

However, campaign group One Family said the approach did not fit in with the Government’s self-proclaimed family-friendly budget.

The organisation said the Government did listen to them and the parents they support by providing a modest increase in a parent’s ability to stay in low-paid employment by increasing the income disregard of those on Job Seekers Transition Allowance.

One Family CEO Karen Kiernan said that while the “tweak” to the allowance was welcome, far more needed to be done to provide a package of supports to help parents work and they had not seen any sign of that.

“It is not good enough that some families are supported more than others,” she said.

“If the Government really wants to be family friendly to all families then more needs to be done to be aware of the reality of the diversity of families in Ireland and what they need.”

Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said that while the well-publicised increase in child benefit might appear to be a step in the right direction, without meaningful investment in public services, the Government target of lifting 70,000 children out of poverty would never be achieved.

“We are disappointed that the Government missed a crucial opportunity in Budget 2016 to invest the €103m needed to introduce free primary education to Ireland,” said Mr Finlay.

“Not only would this tackle educational inequality and ease a significant financial burden on parents, it would ensure we are building a firm foundation for a continuing recovery.

“There are a number of strong investment measures in Budget 2016. As a first step towards building a fairer future for children in Ireland it is strong. But it must be followed up with sustained investment and action for it to have a true and lasting impact on families who have spent years struggling against poverty and inequality.”

The ISPCC said it has raised serious concerns about the apparent failure to provide sufficiently for child safeguarding, child mental health services, and drugs rehabilitation for young people.

ISPCC CEO Grainia Longsaid not a single mention was made of child protection in budget statements. “Given Ireland’s history and the sheer scale of need across our country, we can only conclude that we are failing to learn the lessons of the past,” she said.

Equality Minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin welcomed the Government’s commitment to provide two weeks’ paid paternity leave. “I have always believed that a core part of the equality agenda needed to address the imbalance in paternity leave structures,” he said.