Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and his colleagues for tabling this motion. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the House this evening on the important matter of back-to-school costs. I appreciate that the cost of returning to school every autumn is a significant element and, indeed, burden, in every family’s budget. I am acutely aware of the matters raised in the motion concerning back-to-school costs, especially in the context of rising cost-of-living expenses generally.

Equality of access and opportunity in education has always been a core principle for Fianna Fáil and this Government and we recognise that reducing costs is an intrinsic part of this ambition. Earlier today, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, the Minister for Social Protection and I announced a package worth €67 million to support parents and students in their return to school. This package cuts across an array of services and needs, including the elimination of all fees on the school transport scheme, a €100 increase in the back-to-school allowance, and the expansion of the school meals programme to almost 60,000 more students.

The school transport scheme and back-to-school allowance initiatives will put nearly €9 a week back into parents’ pockets. The back-to-school allowance scheme was introduced more than 30 years ago. I am pleased to confirm to the House that this payment will be increased by €100 for this coming academic year. This will benefit more than 262,000 children in 151,000 families right across the State. This payment will go some way to helping parents and families meet the cost of school attendance.

Schoolbook funding has been increased every year over the past number of years, with increased funding available for book rental schemes, and a new free book scheme having been introduced in more than 100 Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, primary schools since 2020. It is my intention to continue to expand the provision of free books to all school children as resources allow.

Every year, the school transport scheme provides a vital service to families across the families. In the last academic year, more than 121,000 students used the school transport scheme, including 15,000 students with special educational needs. I am delighted to confirm that for this coming academic year, parents will not have to pay a fee in order to access this vital service, with all fees being waived for those in receipt of a ticket. This will result in immediate savings of up to €500 for a family and will benefit more than 120,000 children. Where a parent has already made a payment in respect of their child’s ticket, this will be fully refunded. Further information will issue to all applicants in the coming days.

The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,506 schools and organisations benefiting 230,000 children. As the Deputies present will be aware, earlier this year I announced the single most significant expansion of the DEIS programme, at a cost of €32 million and benefiting 347 additional schools. This will benefit 60,000 children, bringing the total number of students in the DEIS scheme to 240,000. The DEIS programme provides a wide range of supports to schools, including enhanced capitation payments, lower pupil-teacher ratios, and additional planning supports. I am pleased to confirm that the Government today extended the school meals programme to schools that have recently entered the DEIS programme, which will benefit 310 newly designated DEIS schools and almost 60,000 students. All of us know the value of a healthy meal for students. This is a very welcome measure from the Government and the Minister for Social Protection.

As I mentioned earlier, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance payments will be paid to more than 150,000 families in respect of approximately 262,000 children for the coming school year. Today, the Government announced an increase of €100 in the back-to-school allowance for the coming academic year. Consequently, the amount being paid for each qualified child aged between four and 11 years will be €260 and the rate payable for each eligible child aged 12 and over will be €385. It is estimated that some 151,000 families will benefit from this measure in respect of over 262,000 children. This is a one-off measure for 2022 to assist families with back-to-school costs in the current school year.

My Department already provides a book grant of more than €17 million annually to all recognised primary and post-primary schools within the free education scheme in order to provide assistance for books, including book rental schemes. All schools are encouraged to operate book rental schemes to help alleviate costs to parents. At primary level, 96% of schools operate a book rental scheme for parents. The programme for Government contains a commitment to "Commence a free schoolbooks scheme pilot in September 2020 and, pending a successful review of the pilot, expand the scheme to schools nationwide, as resources allow."

Following a commitment in budget 2020 to introduce an extra support to reduce costs for families and school communities, €1 million of funding for a pilot book grant scheme in primary schools was provided. More than 15,000 pupils across 102 primary schools have benefited from this increased investment. This scheme will continue this year, and I intend to seek funding to expand this programme in future budgets.

The Department has also issued a circular to all schools, asking schools to adopt numerous measures in order to minimise costs for parents and families. This includes the provision of a book rental scheme and the phasing out of the use of non-reusable workbooks. Schools are also asked to create a uniform policy which ensures that all items are available from a variety of shops to allow parents and guardians to shop around, and that these uniform items only have iron-on crests.

As Deputies will be aware, students have recently concluded their leaving certificate and junior cycle examinations. This year, in recognition of the financial pressures faced by parents, all examination fees have been waived for every examination student.

In addition to meeting salary costs and providing for building construction and maintenance, the Department provides capitation grant funding directly to schools to cater for day-to-day school running costs such as heating, lighting, insurance and general upkeep. For example, a voluntary secondary school with 500 pupils will receive capitation and ancillary funding of €316,575. A primary school with 150 pupils will receive capitation and ancillary funding of €53,400. This funding notwithstanding, the Department fully understands and accepts the need for improved capitation funding, and therefore the Government has provided for a combined 7.5% increase in standard capitation funding for all recognised primary and post-primary schools over the last number of budgets. It is my intention to seek funding for further capitation increases in future budgets.

Primary and post-primary schools in the free education system are not permitted to charge any form of mandatory fee. No charge may be made in respect of instruction in any subject of the school curriculum, or for recreation or other activities where all pupils are expected to take part. Where voluntary contributions are sought from parents, it must be made clear to all families that the contributions are voluntary in nature and that payment or non-payment of these fees will have no bearing on their child's place in a school.

These are some of the measures that the Government and Department of Education have taken to reduce the burden of back-to-school costs on parents, guardians and families. The Government is committed to continue to build on the good progress made in this area and we are also conscious of the impact that the cost-of-living pressures are having across all of our society.

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