Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is the point I wanted to raise. We are talking about back-to-school costs. The largest school cost, the cost that increases year-on-year, is the voluntary contribution. The reason it is increasing is due to the cut in budgets to schools and capitation grants and those cuts have to be made up somewhere. Schools are operating on smaller budgets with more students and more pressures and the money has to be found somewhere. It is being found in the pockets of parents. That is the reality. The Deputy is right; there are schools that are withholding keys to lockers. One does not get a locker unless one hands over €120 in some cases.

We talk about bullying and the action plan on bullying. The knock-on effect of the policy of voluntary contributions is the poor girl or boy whose parents could not afford €120 and therefore does not get a key to the locker and is identified by other students as being poor and disadvantaged. Children being children will pick on him or her, call him or her names and bully him or her. The Department is washing its hands of the problem while the Minister has it within her power to abolish voluntary contributions. If she does that she will have to increase the funding provided to schools. By not tackling this issue head on, we are not only discriminating against children we are also leading to them being bullied in school.