Mr. Fergus Finlay:

I thank the Chair. I will not take very much time. We made a written submission to the committee and are very grateful for the opportunity to address the committee on a subject that has preoccupied us for a number of years. During that time we have been measuring the costs of going back to school and have published our survey year after year. Every year we say the same thing - this is a very frightening cost. In recent years it has been very clear to us from our direct experience that parents are going into unmanageable levels of debt over what ought to be a constitutional right for their children. Our most recent survey indicated that it costs in the region of €355 to start a child in senior infants; €390 for a child in fourth class and €770 for children going into first year of secondary school. That is the cost of books, uniforms and some absolute basics. It is not the cost of designer labels and all the other things parents are under pressure to provide.

Earlier this year when the budget was published, we said, as I believe all of us would agree, we thought it was shameful that the support available had been cut as drastically as it has been, namely, cut by a third in one budget for both primary and secondary school students, while it has effectively been halved for primary school students in the most recent budgets. Coming here today, we would love to ask for more money to be put into supporting families with these massive costs. We know that is not going to happen. What we would like is for this committee to do what can be done without increasing costs in order to make some things more affordable than they are at present.

In our view, there is a fundamental deficit of leadership in this area. One of the committee members said to me earlier that the problem with the education system in Ireland is that we fund the system but do not control it. Perhaps he did not see it as a problem but I do. There are some things that need to be controlled. For example, a school book rental scheme should be mandatory. If money is given to school principals they must be under absolute injunction and direction that the school book grant cannot be used for any other purpose. The voluntary code that currently exists among school book publishers should be made mandatory. There should be much stronger leadership than there is to direct boards of management to review their uniform policies. In Northern Ireland, for example, very detailed guidance is sent to every single school. Although I understand this is not mandatory it is far more persuasive than anything that goes out from the system here. There must be public policy in these areas. With a little bit of imagination and a little bit of, for want of a better word, lateral thinking, some of the heavier burdens can be removed from parents. Those things are simple to do and do not cost any money.

We know of schools where parents are leading by designing and running the school book rental scheme and where principals support them they are making real progress. In my view the policy should be that parents should be encouraged and allowed to lead and principals should be encouraged and, if necessary, obliged to support this work. Concerning school books and uniforms it is absolutely possible to make the kind of changes that would save families a lot of money. I would love to see and would argue for more financial support but I know it is a waste of everybody's breath to do that in the current climate.

I urge the committee to draw attention to, what I regard as, the inequitable income thresholds that discriminate against single-parent families. The children of single-parent families are already at greater risk of poverty and educational disadvantage without that discrimination. I urge the committee to address that.

When publishing its findings, I ask the committee to outlaw forever workbooks, which are an invention of the devil in my view. They are designed for the sole purpose of making money. They have no educational value whatsoever and cost an arm and a leg that does not need to be spent.