Child Poverty
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
============================================================

Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

I fully support the measures the Taoiseach has outlined. The target of 3% is commendable. Ultimately, we should be working towards a complete eradication of child poverty. While that is aspirational, it should be the target. This time last year, many rumours abounded about the inclusion of a second tier of child benefit as part of budget 2026. Ultimately, it did not make the cut. Can the Taoiseach can confirm what plans there are within his Department, alongside that of the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, to ensure that we will see a second tier of child benefit payment introduced in budget 2027 as a real, concrete measure to tackle child poverty?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21