Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is under subhead D in that case. That is fine, we will come to that later. On the back-to-school costs survey, the former Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, made a big brouhaha about carrying it out and publishing it. He followed it up shortly afterwards with a big banner at the Labour Party conference about how the Labour Party is working to reduce back-to-school costs. There has not been a word about it since. The headlines appeared in the newspapers. The survey was sent out and there has been no interest to find out whether it will actually be implemented, whether it had any impact on the ground or anything else. We hear the Minister speak today about how she might consult with parents' representatives to see if they heard anything about what happened to it. That is simply not on. It just shows that it was nothing more than a gimmick. What we have seen from the Government as opposed to what the Labour Party banner had said at the conference about reducing back-to-school costs, is back-to-school costs for parents increased more in the past three years than under any previous Government. There was the withdrawal of the minor works grants and the summer works scheme, which we will deal with later, and the reduction in capitation grants which has been introduced consecutively over three years. We also had the move by the Minister's colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, to halve the back-to-school grant at secondary level and to cut it by a third at primary level. Overall, through all those measures, more than €100 million was taken out of the pockets of schools and parents in respect of covering back-to-school costs.