Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week, I met a parent on the doorstep in Tallaght and asked her about her basic issues. Immediately, she revealed her main concern was the significant burden and cost education was placing on the household budget, which admittedly was limited. I refer to the pressure owing to her children going back to school. More important, the pressure of paying a voluntary subscription to the school was real because it was made clear that failure to do so would mean her children would not gain access to textbooks and materials centrally procured by the school. The subscription had to be paid up front by the parent.

This illustrates that the ongoing cost of education and going back to school is genuinely growing. Schools have little choice but to raise funds voluntarily. We know from the Grant Thornton report of last February that the average Government allocation to schools for operating costs, amounting to €46,000 per year, does not cover the average expenditure, which is approximately €91,000. Lighting, cleaning, heating, insurance, equipment and printing add to the costs and increase the expenditure when running a school. Small and medium-sized schools suffer even more. DEIS schools, or disadvantaged schools, because they do not have the capacity to raise money, are particularly disadvantaged. They cannot fundraise.

The Oireachtas education committee, under the chairmanship of Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin, held valuable hearings in August on this subject. The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association made a presentation to the committee and stated unequivocally that the current model is unsustainable. It stated the issue is urgent and that many schools are running out of contingency funds and are running deficits. The chief executive officer of the Irish League of Credit Unions, Mr. Ed Farrell, told the committee that the league's annual back-to-school survey results showed a rise in the number of parents in debt due to back-to-school-related costs. Well over one third of parents in Ireland said they were getting into debt to cover back-to-school costs. In particular, the credit unions were worried about the prevalence of moneylenders and the degree to which they are giving loans to parents to try to get through this difficult period. Some 46% of parents said that the cost of going back to school was their biggest worry, and 67% said it represented a significant financial burden. Four in ten said they would not be in a position to afford new shoes for their children, while seven in ten said extracurricular activities would have to be cut.

One of the most effective ways to deal with this, among a number of measures, is to accept that the existing capitation grant is wholly inadequate to fund primary schools, particularly the small and medium-sized schools and DEIS schools. Does the Taoiseach accept that? Does he agree this must be a budget priority and that provision must be made for an increased capitation grant in the forthcoming budget, with a commitment to phased increases in subsequent budgets to try to reduce the pressure on parents who find their children's return to school presents a great difficulty?

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