The amount Ireland has paid in child welfare to families who don’t live here has been revealed

Most of the child welfare payments made to those living abroad were to families of children in Poland.

That's according to numbers crunched by the Independent today.

Each child is entitled to €140 a month from the Irish government. Local rates in Poland would normally be around €34 a month.

EU citizens who work in Ireland and have children in their home countries also benefit to the tune of €140 every month.

The second highest amount of Irish child benefits gets paid to the UK followed by Lithuania.

In total, Ireland pays benefits to the families of 7,938 children living in other EU countries which has cost €40 million in the last three years.

Last week, the Social Protection Minister called for such benefits to be linked to the same rates paid in the country where the child is living.

Leo Varadkar told an EU employment and social meeting that although Ireland wanted to support the children of migrant workers, the welfare system needed to be adjusted to ensure it was fair and in line with local policies.

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