Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the enormous costs which arise for parents in preparing children for school, whether it is the cost of clothes, sports gear, books and all the other things that children require to participate fully in school life. Part of the Government's role is to assist parents with those costs through measures such as child benefit and increases in family income supplement and the working family payment which came into effect in recent weeks. In the past two years, we have increased the back to school clothing and footwear allowance twice. I did that as Minister two years in a row, my predecessor in the Deputy's party having reduced it two or three years in succession, if I am not wrong.

See this speech in context