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

I again acknowledge on behalf of the Government that back-to-school is a very expensive time for families and puts much pressure on family budgets, as is also the case with back-to-college.

The Government is responding. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will be paid from next week. There is an increase to €160 for children aged four to 11 and €285 for children aged 12 years and older. There is an increase in the third level grant, the SUSI grant, that kicks in in September. We have also made changes to make more people eligible for that grant and to allow students to earn more over the summer without it affecting their grant next year.

As I mentioned earlier, Government accepts that when we announced the increase in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance in January, we did not anticipate that inflation would be as high as it is now. Our projections were for inflation of maybe only 2% or 3%. It is now closer to 10%. It is precisely for this reason that the Ministers for Education, Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform were in discussions yesterday and today at the request of the Taoiseach, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and I to see if they can come up with some measures to enhance supports available to families when it comes to back to school. We acknowledge that the end of September is too late in that regard and that work is being done at the moment.

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