Sinn Féin councillor Thérèse Ruane, responding to the Commission on Taxation proposals to tax child benefit, insists that this is grossly unfair, and would create real difficulties for families as they struggle to make ends meet. She also claims that this would push women out of the workforce and into social welfare dependency and poverty.
“We’re already at the bottom of the European league table on child poverty,” Cllr Ruane said. “Families and women in particular depend on child benefit to pay for essential needs of their children. We are already paying exorbitant amounts on childcare in this country. I believe that taxing child benefit would make it even more difficult for women to take up employment and that many women would be forced back into the home.
“It was Fianna Fáil who said that Child Benefit was for the well-being of ‘all our children’. Child benefit is a crucial part of family income. It should leave Child Benefit alone.”
