Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1817. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the annual budgetary amount allocated to the provision of a range of free, adequate, safe and suitable period products in all educational publicly-funded settings including schools, colleges and HEIs from 2021 to date, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56558/23]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1818. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the breakdown of the €0.5 million allocated to each further and higher education institution in Budget 2024 for free period products, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56559/23]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1819. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the nine further education and training colleges that undertook the ‘Worryfree’ pilot delivering free, sustainable period products and dispensers for students in participating ETBs, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56595/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1817, 1818 and 1819 together.

As the Deputy is aware, matters relating to schools do not fall within my remit but that of my colleague Minister Foley. Regarding Education and Training Boards (ETBs), last year, a pilot called ‘Worryfree’ was rolled across further education and training colleges across six ETBs - see table below.

The pilot delivered free, sustainable period products and dispensers for students in participating ETBs. In addition to the pilot in ETBs, other work is taking place across Higher Education Institutions where free period products are currently available, such as ‘Code Red’ in MTU, ‘Any time of the month’ in University Limerick (UL), Brigit’s Basket in the National College of Ireland (NCI). The End Period Poverty campaign in UCD, DCU & Mary Immaculate College (MIC) also have similar initiatives currently running. DCU have also devised a postal service for students who are unable to access the products on campus.

The Department of Health established a Period Poverty Implementation Group to achieve cross sectoral input and to co-ordinate oversight of both the Bill and implementation measures recommended in the Discussion Paper. The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Unit in my Department represents DFHERIS on this group. It is envisaged that the work of the Group will address the indignity experienced by those who may need period products every month but cannot afford them. The DFHERIS and the Department of Health, worked collaboratively on the development of a drawdown contract for the provision of period products in education establishments and other public institutions. The OGP Cleaning, Paper, Personal Hygiene & Period Equality products Procurement Framework commenced on 1st June 2023 and will run for twenty-four months, with a maximum of two extensions of twelve months each.

In Budget 2024, €500,000 was allocated for initiatives towards equality and diversity in the further and higher education sectors.A portion of this will be for addressing period poverty. My officials are currently finalising these allocation and I will update accordingly.

Location of ETBs which took part in Worryfree pilot