Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement that the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will be automatically paid to families from next Monday. This will be worth €160 per child for primary school children between the ages of four and 11 years and €285 for those who attend secondary school. I also welcome the extra €100 payment to families before the end of August and the decision of the Department of Education to waive the school transport fees. As the Minister said, this measure will help 120,000 children. This is all good news, as are the 60,000 additional school meals that will be made available. This is a very good job and badly needed, so well done to the Minister.

We need to extend the back-to-school allowance scheme to middle-income families and increase the rate payable to people on lower incomes. It is hard to believe that the back-to-school allowance was much higher 15 years ago than it is today and that 25% of people go into debt to pay the cost of children going back to school. I just heard that today. As the Minister knows, this is a very expensive time for families with school-going children when one considers the costs of uniforms, shoes, books, travel and school contributions.

I looked today at who qualifies for the back-to-school allowance. It is people on social welfare payments, including the working family payments, back-to-work family dividends and HSE payments, people on approved employment schemes or back-to-work schemes, those taking part in recognised education and training courses or in receipt of a daily expenses allowance either for a child’s education or personally from the age of 20 taking part in a scheme while attending a further education and training course. Many people in receipt of social welfare payments are not included in that list, including those in receipt of the children's allowance, rent supplement, guardian payments or blind benefits.

While I welcome the changes, middle-income working families still have a problem. They are struggling from week to week, trying to keep their spirits up at home with their family with everything else. If they have two or three children, they have to pay all of this money. They are struggling to put food on the table, pay their mortgages and heating bills and put petrol in their cars to travel to work and take their children to school.

I welcome the €2.4 billion the Government provided for cost-of-living measures last week.

I am not ashamed to raise again a case I raised in the House last week. A man came into my constituency office crying. He said he could no longer afford to look after his family. He travels up to Dublin five days a week from Dundalk. His petrol and fuel costs have doubled and he feels under enormous pressure. Everything seems to be going wrong for him. He has to vacate the house he is renting.

He found one house that cost €1,800 a month in rent. He just cannot afford to pay it. It is impossible. This is very concerning and it is not just him, but others coming to my constituency office.

Many people are now considering going on to social welfare because by doing so they get the housing assistance payment, HAP, at maybe €1,150. They also get medical cards and are entitled to other benefits. This is a typical family of four. The cost of living for a typical family of four is over €3,000, excluding rent. When rent is added it is €4,500 a month, which is €54,000 per year. It does not pay middle-income people or people on low income to work. We need to take a serious look at the situation at the moment.

I welcome that the Government is trying its best, but only a certain number of people will get this. This is one family and other families are coming to me. We are trying to get people working and trying to get the country on its feet again. Looking at the corporation tax take, the top ten companies in Ireland contribute one eighth of the total cost of keeping the country going. We need people out there working, but the country is encouraging people to stay on social welfare to get these benefits. The Minister might not think so. I will praise the Government again. Giving the extra €100 for the back-to-school allowance is very good, but it is only helping a small number of people. I plead with the Government to help the people who need the help now.

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