Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Unfortunately, that is not the experience of most parents sending their children to school. There is considerable pressure on parents to pay the so-called voluntary contribution and, in some instances, schools are starting to call them school bills and making it very clear that the contribution is not voluntary. There is a good deal of pressure in terms of texts, emails, phone calls, letters and some schools even have incentives whereby if parents pay the full amount by a certain date they will be in with a chance to win a prize in a raffle or something like that. That places a great deal of pressure on parents because children are coming home from school and they do not want to be the child who is different. I have considerable sympathy for the schools because they are stretched. They are trying to come up with a way of subsidising their income but, unfortunately, it falls back on the children because some schools penalise them by not allocating a child a locker or not giving a child a school journal or homework notebook - items like that which are handed out. Some schools are brilliant and they handle it very well but others schools do not handle it well. The only ones who are paying the price for this are the children. There is nothing worse for a child than going to school and feeling they do not have the money for this and that they are going to be different. That puts a great deal of unnecessary pressure on children.

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