Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend this motion. It looks like the Government is trying to jump all over the place this evening about the fact that Sinn Féin has put forward a motion on children's school costs. This morning I read out statistics from The Mirrorto the Tánaiste. He was not too impressed about where they came from. Hopefully, when the Minister hears what the president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is saying, it might be taken more seriously. Rose McGowan, the society's national president, said:

But the inflation forecast is rising, rising, rising. The gap between income and expenditure for people on the lowest incomes will grow. The fact of life in Ireland today is that there is a weekly gap of €49 between core social welfare rates and the cost of the minimum essential standard of living.

She spoke about families already worrying about next year's back to school costs, about a woman who recently asked the charity to borrow two coats for her children and about people in rural Ireland being unable to leave their homes as they cannot afford the petrol or diesel to do so. Ms McGowan explained that not being able to pay bills or eat properly can also have a knock-on effect on people's well-being and mental health. Children should have happy memories. Separate research compiled by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul detailed further experiences of people living below the minimum standard of living. One parent told the society about not being able to give €5 to their children for school trips while another described feeling crushed because they could not afford to have a birthday party for their eight-year-old daughter.

Last night, I was contacted by a family who are trying to come up with €350 to pay for the school bus ticket. That might have changed by this evening - I would certainly welcome that news, but I hope the devil is not in the detail. We need further clarity on the real roll-out of what the Minister has announced this evening. The parents who contacted me were worried about the school bus ticket for their only child. Both parents have minimum wage jobs and both need cars. They are living on the breadline. They cannot afford a ticket and cannot understand why the 20% discount has not been passed on to them, but then again it is rural Ireland and we expect no better. We are the ones who are paying for your buses and trains up here in Dublin. Parents of secondary school children estimate that they spend €1,340 on average per school year. Parents estimate that it costs €1,040 per annum, which is up €372 compared to 2020, to keep their child in primary school education. The Government's refusal to introduce an emergency budget even as households are pushed to the brink of disaster by soaring living costs is cruel and heartless and will impact families preparing to send children back to school in September.

Regarding the transport scheme announced by the Minister this evening, a lot of people have contacted me who had not contacted me previously. They had been worrying that they would not be able to pay for their child to travel to school but I would like to know the detail of the new scheme. Is every child who sits on a bus going to get a free transport service to school, or are we going to be very confused in the next few weeks and find out it is different from that? I would appreciate if the Minister would clarify that.

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