Ms June Tinsley:

Barnardos works with more than 15,000 children and their families every year across our 42 projects. We have been a long-time campaigner to ease the burden of school costs on parents because we see the huge financial pressure they cause for parents as they try to ensure their children can participate in school. We also see the negative, knock-on impact this can have on children.

Every year, we do our schools costs survey. This year, it was completed by more than 2,200 parents throughout the country spanning both DEIS and non-DEIS schools. Our survey is different from others as it only covers the basics. It does not cover things like school lunches, extracurricular activities or items for practical subjects. Our key findings this year were that the average cost for the basic items was €360 for a senior infant pupil, €380 for a fourth class pupil and €765 for a first year pupil. The survey found that more parents are going into debt this year than last year, particularly in respect of secondary school level, where 21% of parents were forced to borrow money to cover school costs. That means going to family, friends, moneylenders or credit unions. Other parents said they had either to juggle household bills or to take money out of savings to cover the cost.

The majority of parents reported an increase in the cost of school books. Parents are very frustrated by the lack of consistency in both the expense and the number of books required to teach the same curriculum from school to school. School book rental schemes are more popular at primary level than secondary, yet what they offer varies considerably. This reduces the saving that parents can avail of. Uniforms are more prevalent at secondary level than at primary level. The average cost can range between €100 and €200.

Similar to the National Parents Council, we found there was an increase in the number of parents being asked for a voluntary contribution this year. We know there have been some efforts to tackle school costs over the years. For example, there was the voluntary code with book publishers in 2011 and the circular which the Minister issued to schools last year. However, our survey tells us these measures are not really having an impact on parents. Parents are expressing frustration and feel overburdened by having continually to prop up Ireland's underfunded education system, which purports to be a free system.

Inevitably, families with the lowest incomes are disproportionately affected. For too long, our schools have been operating on a shoestring, having to rely on top-ups from parents to pay for essential items such as lighting and heating. We believe this is grossly unfair and it is something that we as a nation should be ashamed of, especially when we know the role that education can play in eradicating child poverty.

Barnardos believes that everything a child needs to complete the curriculum should be provided by the State, and Ireland is an outlier in this regard. We have carried out the costings for this, which have been verified by the Department of Education and Skills. We calculate that it would cost an extra €103 million to deliver free primary education to all children. It would cost €126 million at secondary level.