The Minister for Children Barry Andrews (pictured) has suggested that the Government may have to examine cutting child benefit for higher earners in the next Budget.

He was speaking in the wake of the announcement of UK Chancellor George Osborne that his Government are to cut child benefit for higher earners. The move has created a storm of controversy in Britain.

Echoing Mr Osborne, Mr Andrews said yesterday that it was very hard to justify a situation where high earners were receiving child benefit on the basis of tax paid by people on much lower incomes, the Irish Times reports.

Speaking on Newstalk yesterday, he said his own view was that it was hard to justify for higher earners at a time of fiscal austerity. “Everything is on the agenda in the talks that we’ll be having in Cabinet over the next six to nine weeks.” Asked if would he not be opposed to changes in child benefit, he said it was “something that needs to be looked at”.

However, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was more circumspect about the prospect of a means-tested cut.

Speaking about the issue in Cork yesterday, he said: “The problem with children’s allowances, and we’ve been through this for the past two years in terms of systems, it just hasn’t been possible to bring in a system that will tax children’s allowance.

“As far as I’m concerned we’ve had this debate for two years and both the Department of Finance and the Department of Social Welfare have gone through this and there are a lot of anomalies and you end up with people in separations and all of that because of the data bases just aren’t there.

“If they can do in the UK, we will wait and see but our systems are telling us it’s just not possible. And then there’s the issue of the child benefit being the payments for the children to the mother. Child benefit is universally available in Ireland and is paid at the same rate per child irrespective of the income of the parents.”

The benefit is paid to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years, or under 18 if the child is in full-time education, in Fás training, or has a disability.

The monthly rate increases on a sliding scale. It is €150 for one child; €300 for two children; €487 for three children; and €674 for four children; with parents of eight children receiving €1,422 each month.

Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív, whose department is responsible for the payments, would not comment on Mr Andrews’s views.

“The Government has started its budgetary process and speculation in advance of the budget would be unhelpful,” he said.

The overall cost of child benefit to the State was €2.5 billion in 2009.

The Children’s Rights Alliance, in its response to Mr Andrews’s comments, said reducing the benefit would have a serious negative impact at a time when families were already struggling to survive.

“Child benefit should not be up for grabs. In Ireland, unlike in the UK, most families make substantial contributions to the cost of the health, education and care of their children,” said Jillian Van Turnhout, chief executive of the alliance.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron today suggested married couples could get a new tax break to help compensate for losing child benefit. He was reacting to a firestorm of criticism generated by Chancellor George Osborne to cut child benefits to higher earners.

The proposal will hit parents who take time out from work to look after their children disproportionately because combined income will not be considered.

Under the proposal as it stands, two working parents earning just under the higher-rate tax threshold of £44,000 could take home up to £88,000 and retain their payouts while a household with just one income of £45,000 would lose theirs.

But the Prime Minister told the BBC this morning: “If you look, for instance, at the issue of the stay-at-home mother, we do talk in the coalition Government about having some sort of transferable tax allowance to help couples in that way.

“So there are things that we will try and do to make sure that all of what we do, if you look across the piece, to deal with the deficit is fair.”

Many Tory MPs are unhappy at the cut, feeling it unfairly hits stay-at-home mothers.

Tim Loughton, the children’s minister, last night said ministers could try to soften the blow by raising the starting threshold for higher-rate tax.