Another member of the Labour parliamentary Party member has jumped ship.

Limerick Senator James Heffernan is voting against cuts to child benefit as the Senate debates the social welfare bill today.

It's another blow for the Labour leader, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, after they lost party chair Colm Keaveney in a similar vote in the Dail last week.

Despite losing a Government member, the bill is expected to pass comfortably through the upper house.

Below you can watch Fianna Fail Senator Averil Power speaking on the bill: