Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With the summer holidays under way, it will not be long before most parents around the country will begin to think about the costs of sending their children back to school. For many parents, particularly in this economic climate, the thought of finding the means to pay the escalating costs of preparing a child or a number of children for a new school year can be a daunting prospect.

Most parents who are preparing a child for the new school year will have a must-buy list of items. This could include uniforms, school shoes and books for the new academic year. There will also be an expectation of being obliged to make voluntary contributions to the school to provide for the cost of various school activities in the new academic year. Many schools will insist that parents buy branded uniforms such as blazers, school shirts and ties from a specific supplier, which can be very costly. Those in economically disadvantaged communities or parents on low incomes often face stark choices when preparing their child or children to return to school. It can impact on the family's health and welfare, on their ability to pay bills, to pay rent, to pay mortgages, to pay for transport and to pay for childcare.

The average cost is €1,200 for a primary school student and €1,500 for a secondary school student. Most families struggle to find the extra money to cover such back-to-school costs. With the cost of living spiralling out of control, these costs are an additional burden on struggling families. Sinn Féin is proposing to help struggling families by extending the back-to-school allowance to middle-income families with a household income of under €80,000. This will bring an additional 500,000 children into the back-to-school allowance scheme. For those who already qualify for the allowance, it is essential that they receive an increase in the allowance by 50% to allow for the escalating rising costs across the board of sending a child back to school.

We need to catch up with our neighbours in the North and introduce a free school books scheme. Sending a child to school should not impose a financial burden on parents. Whatever happened to the idea of free education? It is something we should be striving for. The Government needs to take urgent action to ensure that sending a child to school will not break the bank or cause hardship for the parents or the child. While some of the measures the Minister has announced are welcome, it has taken a long time and it is this Private Members' motion that has pushed the Government into this position.

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