Proposed plans to link the payment of child benefit to school attendance rates have been scrapped.
Such plans, which were seen as largely punitive and without any real merit, were part of the Programme for Government. However, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has said that it would not incentivize school attendance.
This was highlighted by the Anti-Austerity Alliance party, saying that “It’s… based on punishing individuals, rather than investing in developing a society with necessary supports to ensure high school attendance. Families and parents need support, not the punishment of deeper poverty.”