The problem is that if we didn't have child benefit the birth rate would reduce. We would then have an ageing population & we would have no young people to 'look after the elderly' as analysts put it.

Trent, i can't have this. You are saying if we didn't have child welfare, then the birth rate would drop. It might drop slightly but the idea it would drop in any major way is laughable. Most parents do not choose to have kids due to the child welfare, maybe some "lower class" do but most middle class parents do not...

The excuses i hear border on pathetic. The extinction of the Irish people and how elderly need looking after by the young of Ireland.
People need to take responsibility for themselves. Too many leaches expect the state to pay for their over inflated lifestyles.

You know people with 8 kids can get E1550 in welfare per month.

Now that is a complete pi55take

Whos being bailed?

The current system is **kin insane.
Child 1 gets €166. Child 2 gets €166.

Children 3, 4, 5 etc get €203 each!


Where in the name of Jaysus is the logic in that!!?

Diamond Joe,
I agree there are flaws in the system.
Without child benefit those that breed responsibly won't breed.
Those that breed irresponsibly will continue to breed anyway.
Richard Dawkins said that off all the species that have populated the earth, humanity is the one best suited to survive extinction as we have such big brains & the human brain has increased in size since the origin of the species. As a species we are getting more intelligent.
In order for the human brain to get bigger, the more intelligent people should have more children.
He asked the question, 'Do the more intelligent people have more children?'
The audience & Ryan Tubridy answered 'No'.
Dawkins said that a natural evolutionary consequence of this is that human brain size will shrink, we will get less intelligent & eventually become extinct.

Tobywong,
I don't know what you are getting at.
Everyone who enters the public service knows how much money they are going to get at different stages of their career.
My wife works in the public service. I've applied for public service jobs & in every single one of them you received a table that should how much you would get at diffreent grades & after different levels of service.

The public service workers then decided that this wasn't enough, threatened all sorts of industrial action & as a result colluded with the FF administration to perpetrate one of the greatest fra.uds ever on the Irish taxpayers & called it benchmarking.
I don't recall a single dail deputy/senator calling it a fra.ud as they were in on it as well.

If I back a horse @ 5/2 I know I'm getting paid at 5/2 if it wins.
In this instance public sector workers decided 5/2 wasn't enough as someone else got 11/4 & they want 3/1.
It's not even as if the bookie is asking you to return the half point difference, it's just that in future 5/2 winners are settled @ 5/2.
Put simply, benchmarking should never have happened.
I know people have made financial commitments due to the bonanza that was benchmarking, but reversing benchmarking has to start somewhere.

"That money was for my groceries and shopping".... :^0

:^0 that was the funniest thing i've ever seen

youtube classic with a million hits on its way surely :^0