'Nothing's off the table' - Micheál Martin responds to possible doubling of Child Benefit

The Taoiseach has responded to a recent report that suggest a second, or two-tier payment, should be added to the Child Benefit payment to pull Irish children out of poverty.

Speaking at the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle on Monday, the Taoiseach said that "nothing's off the table" and that targeted Child Benefit and all other prospects will be explored ahead of Budget 2026 this coming October.

The new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) released last week, revealed that Ireland’s current system of child-related social welfare benefits significantly reduces child income poverty and deprivation, lifting an estimated 157,000 children out of income poverty and 94,000 out of consistent poverty.

The study, published as part of the ESRI’s Budget Perspectives 2026 series, evaluates the impact of existing benefits on child poverty. Benefits such as Child Benefit and Working Families Payment are considered in addition to other benefits such as National Childcare Scheme (NCS) subsidies and free schoolbooks and meals.

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Key findings of the study include:

• Accounting for all benefits, the simulated child At Risk of Poverty (AROP) rate for 2025 is 13.9% (165,000 children).
• In the absence of benefits such as Child Benefit, the AROP rate would be 10 percentage points higher.
• In the absence of benefits, such as free preschool and school meals, the AROP rate would be 1.5 percentage points higher.
• Accounting for all child benefits, the simulated child consistent poverty rate is 5.6%. In the absence of these supports the child consistent poverty rate would be 8 percentage points higher, at 13.6%.

The ESRI proposed a second-tier of means-tested Child Benefit be introduced which would reduce the child AROP rate by 4.6 percentage points, lifting 55,000 children out of income poverty, and consistent poverty by 2.1 percentage points, lifting 25,000 children out of consistent poverty, at an annual cost of approximately €772 million.

"We will be examining all aspects of Child Benefit and I have a child poverty unit within the Department that is focusing on these issues," the Taoiseach said, "I already spoke to Minister of Social Protection Dara Calleary on this, but nothing's off the table.

"There's a wide menu there that we can choose from to target resources to meaningfully impact on the child poverty situation. That's not just in terms of income supports, but also in terms of other initiatives in education, for example, the Deis+, which which would target children in severe disadvantage and other areas.

"The Child Benefit remains, but I'm saying we're looking at more targeted responses on the child poverty issue, which can come across a number of instruments.

"We're examining all options in perspective. We have to do something targeted and something that will have a meaningful impact on child poverty. Nothing is off the table. There is a very significant expenditure required for something like that as well. There's a range of measures for looking at this," he added.

Currently, the Child Benefit payment stands at €140 and is payed automatically on the first Tuesday of every month. The ESRI said the second tier payment would benefit low-income families who would get an extra means tested payment of up €145 every month, on top of the universal Child Benefit payment of €140.