Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion today. It is an unusually important motion. I also believe that the ramifications of the motion and the Opposition pressure have led to the announcement today, which I welcome. The announcement today will bring great relief to families who are struggling. I lament the fact that it took so long to get to this point but, regardless, it will be a huge relief to those families.

I have one criticism. I have been asked if it goes far enough and the answer must be "No, it does not." As for the reasons it does not go far enough, a report published by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul some months ago sticks very strongly in my mind. The report, entitled, The Cost of Surviving?, captured data showing that one-parent families are continually the most vulnerable cohort of people in the State and are consistently living on the poverty line. To them, every single additional measure or every single letter that comes through their door is a fear. They are fearful of their child coming home to say that he or she has torn football boots or saying that the school needs a capitation or a voluntary contribution or that they need a new book. Every single cost incurred for that cohort of people is a huge fear. As for what would be enough, were funding of €236 million to be announced in the next budget, that would go a huge amount of the way towards making primary and secondary education in this country truly free. Only that would be enough, such is the cost-of-living crisis.

In Ireland we are very good at using certain words when we mean something else. In this Chamber we talk continually about the cost-of living crisis. This actually means people living in poverty. By its very nature, poverty is corrosive to the human spirit. I remember talking to a person in a one-parent family about one year ago, which was before the various different increases that we have seen recently. She was talking to me about how poverty attacks every single one of her senses. Poverty means being able to smell the food that you must reserve and not eat. Poverty means the noise that comes from the next room when you are living in a hotel room with your children and the fear of who might be coming up and down the corridors. Poverty induces huge levels of fear. When parents are thinking about incurring the costs of the return to school, that fear is genuinely tangible. These are parents who are, in some instances, already skipping a meal. This is not hyperbole on my part. This information is captured by the Cost of Surviving? report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It is also in every single one of our email inboxes. I cannot be the only Deputy in this Chamber who, when out meeting people or engaging with them through our office, is hearing people in genuine fear of not being able to afford three square meals a day. There is a fear of a child coming home with a torn jacket because the parent will not be able to afford to replace it. They now never contemplate having a meal out with friends or a night out because inevitably, the budget would not stretch that far.

I welcome today's announcement. I lament that it has taken so long but I believe it does not go far enough. We are after the €236 million funding for a fully free education. That should be the gold standard. We should not be willing to compromise on anything less than that. I am very conscious that up until today, the back-to-education allowance was significantly higher than it was since 2007. Today's announcement, however, has actually gone beyond that, which is welcome. It should not have had to take that long. The Government must be a lot more reactive when listening to the real lived experience of the people who are telling us they are choosing between heating their homes or having three square meals a day so their children do not go without. These are the real lived experiences of families who are suffering and cannot wait for an October, now a September, budget. These are the real lived experiences of people who are saying that this cost-of-living crisis is genuinely a cost-of-survival situation in their homes. I welcome Sinn Féin's motion today. I commend that it has been brought to the House. It needs to be discussed at this point and I welcome the response from the Government this evening but it does not go far enough. Let us make education truly free in this country: free primary school education and free secondary school education. It should never be the case any more that in this Republic, parents would fear having to buy an additional book because it means they may have to sacrifice a meal. That is the genuine lived experience as relayed to us.

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