Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection

Managing Back to School Costs: Discussion

10:55 am

Mr. Ferdia Kelly:

We would advise that a conversation takes place at local level between management and the parents' association. There are a variety of customs and practices and tradition and it is best for decisions to be made at local level with a view to ensuring that cost is kept to a minimum. It is important to make the point about designer labels. We hear from our schools about the fund-raiser of non-uniform days. We hear of the angst that non-uniform days causes to parents and most particularly to young people who have to appear in the various labels. We need to be careful in balancing the cost of a uniform and keeping it at a minimum while at the same time not swaying the balance in the other direction and putting additional costs on parents for labelled items.