The programme for Government commits to the next generation protecting and enriching our young people. Bearing this in mind, I raised this issue with the Taoiseach last year when he was Minister for Social Protection. I wonder whether the Taoiseach can commit to extending child benefit to children who are over 17 years of age and who remain in full-time second level education. This is a big issue for families. It is an expensive year – it is normally leaving certificate year. Obviously, it would be very positive if child benefit could be extended to children who are over 17 years of age while they remain in full-time second level education.

I have spoken to the Deputy about this before. I think it would be something that would be nice to do. It would be nice to extend child benefit to people who are 18 years of age and still in education. However, when it comes to the social protection budget, we have to prioritise. Obviously, providing another year or two years of child benefit to people who are 18 or 19 years of age would be extremely costly. We have to prioritise. When it comes to supporting children and young adults, the major ways to do this include ensuring that there is no increase in college registration fees and targeted measures, such as increasing the family income supplement and the dependent child payment, which we have done in this budget. It is like many things: it is something that would be really nice to do, but there are other priorities at the moment.