While the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul welcomes what the charity is calling the budget's "temporary supports" to help over the winter, a Cavan-Monaghan SVP spokesperson said not everyone needs them.
Madeline Ní Mhealoid, who sits on Saint Vincent De Paul's National Social Justice Committee, was invited into the Northern Sound studios to give her views on budget 2025. While the double child benefit payment promised will "help all children", the government missed an opportunity to give permanent additional support to children who need it most", Madeline said.
The increased payments should have been targeted at the families who need it most because there are families today receiving extra money who didn't need it in the first place, she explained. For the families who need child benefit to survive, there will not be a penny of the double payment left come January, Madeline said: "Now, if you have a lump of a fella of 17 that the poor mother is trying to provide for that child €62 won't go a long way to feed him and clothe him and maybe buy him a pair of football boots, y'know the ordinary things for living," Madeline told Northern Sound, "because not only do they need to be fed and clothed but they need to be part of organisations and that costs money. There'll be no penny of that double child benefit payment left in January."
