The minister behind plans to link child benefit to school attendance says the measure is NOT designed as a threat to parents.
But Denis Naughten's claims today contrast with comments he made a year ago - when he said it would motivate parents to send children to school.
The clause contained in the Programme for Government plans to monitor child benefit payments by merging the two existing schemes, run by Túsla and the Department of Education, that monitor school attendance.
The plan has attracted almost universal condemnation from the opposition benches, with criticism from several political parties as well as from civil society groups.
This afternoon the minister who first raised the idea in 2011, independent TD Denis Naughten, told RTE News the measures was designed as an anti-fraud issue.
He said linking the two systems would make sure that child benefit isn't being paid in cases where a child lives abroad, or doesn't exist.
Minister Naughten - who is now in charge at the newly-renamed Department of Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources - said the so-called 'control savings' of such a measure could be €75 million a year.
"About €75 million is paid out to children that don’t exist, are no longer resident in the country or are no longer entitled to the benefit," he said.
However the comments today clash with remarks in the Dáil last year - when the npw-minister specifically linked the plan to the poor school attendance of some children, and said it should be used as a "threat":
"I am talking about threatening to remove it," he said. "It has to be part of the toolkit."
The proposal would also seem to conflict with current EU rules - under which a parent is permitted to claim child benefit for a child living abroad.
The Department of Social Protection states: "If you are in insurable employment in Ireland or receiving a benefit or pension under Irish law in Ireland you may qualify for Child Benefit from the Department of Social and Family Affairs even if the children are living in another Member State."
