In order to support 650,000 families with their living expenses, an additional family allowance of 100 euros will be paid this month.
The extra support will pay 240 euros per child for more than 1.2 million children this month.
In addition, from this month, an additional payment of €100 will be made for each child receiving the back-to-school allowance for clothes and shoes, reports RTE.
For a child aged 4 to 11, the payment is €260 and for a child aged 12 to 22, €385.
The measures were announced by the government in February as part of a €410 million social assistance package to support families, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities.
This included a €200 lump sum for people on long-term social security benefits and a €200 allowance for some active child benefit recipients.
Both were made in April.
Welfare Secretary Heather Humphreys described Child Benefit as “an extremely important income support” that reach “hundreds of thousands of hardworking families”, reports RTE.
She said she is “deeply conscious of the difficulties families are facing right now in meeting their bills”, reports RTE.
Social Justice Ireland says the increase is welcome for people struggling with inflation, but the measure should have been targeted at low-income families.
“I’m very concerned that a lot of families would have gone into this cost-of-living crisis with either depleted or no reserves … and a one-off payment isn’t enough,” the advocacy organisation’s research and policy analyst Suzanne Rogers said, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime yesterday, Ms Rogers said: “If you go around a supermarket buying things like nappies, wipes and maybe a baby grow or two and a bit of formula it isn’t going to go very far,” reports RTE.
“Every single household in the country has seen their costs increase, no matter what. I appreciate that Government will say that to tackle the problem quickly a universal approach is key, but I’m conscious these are families that have gone without for a long time,” Ms Rogers added, reports RTE.
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