Almost 48,000 children have benefited from the newborn baby grant in the first year since it was introduced in Ireland.
The grant was set up on December 1st, 2024, and is paid to families of babies born or adopted after that date.
It pays €280 per child, and for twins the grant is €560 in addition to their regular first month’s child benefit payment of €140.
Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection, John Paul O’Shea TD, obtained figures from the Department of Social Protection which show that the grant has been given to 47,633 children to date.
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Dublin has the highest number of newborn babies with 13,127 grants paid up to December 9th this year, while Leitrim had the lowest with 292 newborn baby grants paid in the county.
Mr O’Shea explained that the grant was introduced to help families with the costs of a “new arrival”.
The newborn baby grant is paid automatically with the first child benefit payment, “there is no additional application for the grant so new parents don’t have to do anything extra to receive it,” he said.
Mr O’Shea added that he was “particularly pleased to see 5,352 children in Cork have benefited from the grant so far”.
He noted: “Supports like this alongside the likes of the free GP card for under-8s, free hot school meals and free school books are all designed to make life a little bit easier for young, working families.”
Key commitments in the programme for Government such as the introduction of Pay Related Parents Benefit would provide extra support for young families, he said.
