Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The country is in a major financial emergency and I was required to find extensive savings in terms of the social protection budget, which I did, but I also ensured that the core rates remained intact which I believed was very important.

Regarding this scheme, the allowance that will be available this year is significant in terms of the needs of a primary or secondary school child. We are now paying it to a very large number of children, 340,000, and we expect to pay it to that number of children this year. The reality is that the cost of clothing in particular has fallen significantly relative to the increases in the payments which were made, particularly in times when there were significant amounts of money to spend. The spending by the Department this year on the back to school clothing and footwear allowance will offer significant assistance to families, particularly families on a social welfare income. The Deputy should bear in mind that families are in receipt of child benefit and if they are on a social welfare income they would be in receipt of qualified child increases also. The support given to children by us in our budgetary process is very significant.

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