Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not know. The Taoiseach took two and a half minutes to say "no" without mentioning the word "no". I proposed very modest measures which would cost the State €65 million in taxpayers' money. This money does not belong to the Taoiseach, Fine Gael or the Independents. I presume the Taoiseach will not act on my proposals. The back-to-school allowance does not cover the cost of getting children back to school. Although the Taoiseach said he had increased child benefit, this is after he cut it. He has reinstated some of it.

This year, we celebrated the centenary of the 1916 Proclamation. It is done and dusted. The Proclamation was taken out, patriotic rhetoric was stated at commemorations, and now the Proclamation has been put away again for another 100 years. The Government gave free copies of the Proclamation to schools, schools which include children living in deprivation. UNICEF has shown that one third of Irish children suffer from material deprivation in households that cannot afford essential items. These reports tell us what we know if we run clinics in our constituencies and if we are connected with and embedded in our communities. The Taoiseach, in his non-answer, has chosen to ignore this crisis. We have offered constructive measures which would ease this. The €65 million would go a long way to relieving distress on families. Again, I ask the Taoiseach to just say "yes" and to increase the allowance, even by way of a supplementary payment to parents in the coming months.

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