The double child benefit payment going into accounts today will see the average family with two kids being paid €580.
The unprecedented second payment will cost the taxpayer €186m and is going to 667,000 families with over 1.25 million children.
While a double child benefit payment is usually made in December, this is the first time there is a double-double, with the payments coming in November and December.
This month’s double payment announced in last month’s budget has been criticised for being untargeted and positioned close to the general election.
Taoiseach Simon Harris is calling this an “important week ahead in terms of child benefit payments”.
The €400 cost-of-living payment for 46,000 families in receipt of Working Family Payment, paid out yesterday, cost another €18m.
There was also a €300 Fuel Allowance lump sum that was paid to 400,000 people in receipt of that benefit, costing €128m, yesterday.
And a €400 lump sum payment to recipients of Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension, costing €85m, was also paid out yesterday.
It comes as Mr Harris’s plans to call the general election are still up in the air and being hampered by a trip to Hungary to meet European leaders.
The general election will be on Friday, November 29, but it has to be called by the end of this week.
Mr Harris is expected to call the election on Thursday morning or Friday afternoon.
As of now, Friday is appearing to be more likely, but neither option is ideal because of a 24-hour visit to Budapest.
If Mr Harris dissolves the Dáil on Thursday morning, he will be going straight to the airport and leaving the country afterwards.
If he calls the election on his return on Friday afternoon, he will be doing so without the traditional courtesy of informing the Dáil.
The Dáil will be formally dissolved by President Michael D Higgins. The timetable of events usually involves a short statement by the Taoiseach to the Dáil informing TDs of the decision to call a general election, a speech outside Government Buildings and then going to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the President.
The Dáil cannot be dissolved before tomorrow night when the Finance Bill will be voted on
But Mr Harris now has a dilemma due to two important meetings in Budapest. He will be out of the country from Thursday at about noon to Friday lunchtime.
“It’s a bit of a Catch-22 and neither option is pretty,” a government source said.
After flying out of Dublin on Thursday, Mr Harris will first attend a summit in the evening of the European Political Community, made up of 44 European leaders, to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other security issues.
That night, he will attend a dinner with EU leaders to discuss the outcome of the US presidential election and the war in the Middle East.
Government party leaders: Green Party’s Roderic O’Gorman, Fine Gael’s Simon Harris and Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin
On Friday morning, the 27 EU leaders will hold a formal meeting and make a collective statement on those topics.
Mr Harris will return from Budapest around lunchtime on Friday.
The Dáil cannot be dissolved before tomorrow night when the Finance Bill, which brings the budget into effect, will be voted on. This is the last substantial business to be carried out by the Dáil before the general election is called.
Mr Harris does have the option of going into the Dáil early on Thursday morning, kicking off the traditional route to calling the general election. But he would then be heading straight to the airport from the Áras and then being out of the country for the first 24 hours of the campaign.
Mr Harris has danced around the general election date now for several months, with previous commitments to see out the full life of the Dáil term long abandoned.
The last general election was called suddenly, as then taoiseach Leo Varadkar was worried about losing a vote of no confidence in Mr Harris, who was health minister at the time. Independent and Fianna Fáil TDs had threatened to vote ‘no confidence’ in Mr Harris due to his handling of the health service.