THERE MAY be constitutional difficulties with removing child benefit from high-earning households, Minister for Social Protection Eamon Ó Cuív has said.
He was reacting to suggestions the Government could follow the example of the British chancellor, George Osborne, who has announced that child benefit would no longer be paid to the highest-earning households.
Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews has said changes to child benefit for higher income parents should be looked at. While Mr Ó Cuív said “everything will be looked at”, he added: “There are huge complexities in doing it through the tax system. One thing you cannot constitutionally do is do anything that disadvantages families, families based on marriage, because of the Constitutional situation here.”
