Ireland is planning to cut child benefit by at least 10 euros a month in next month's budget for 2012, where it is required to make expenditure savings and tax hikes of 3.8 billion euros, the Sunday Independent and Sunday Times newspapers reported.
Child benefit was cut by 10 euros a month in the 2011 budget and together with the extra 10 euros shaved off the higher payments entitled to families with three or more children, it created savings of 140 million euros.
The allowance - payable to all parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age - was also cut in the budget for 2010. A spokeswoman for the ministry of social protection - under whose department the reported cut would fall - said the government was considering all options in relation to the budget and that no decisions have made.
In an effort to make cuts such as child benefit more palatable to the less well off, Dublin will also reduce income tax duties for lower paid workers and instead target wealthy tax exiles, the Sunday Business Post said. Finance Minister Michael Noonan confirmed on Friday that he will propose a 2 percentage point increase in sales tax in the December 6 budget after documents shared with EU-IMF lenders and first revealed by Reuters on Thursday, showed Dublin was planning such a hike to raise an extra 670 million euros.
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