Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For any family looking at costs it feels it cannot meet and that currently is above the income eligibility criteria for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, it should reach out for help to the Department of Social Protection. There is an additional needs payment available there and the cost of returning the child back to school is a qualifying cost. As the Deputy is aware, we have made changes to the eligibility criteria for that additional needs payment. People who are working full time can now qualify. Of course the Department will examine every individual case and this is what we would expect the Department to do. The Department has received a clear signal from the Government that these cases are to be looked at sympathetically, recognising the fact that people are facing extra costs at this time.

The Deputy also raised the issue of the industrial relations dispute. The workers concerned are not directly employed as public service employees, which I believe the Deputy understands and acknowledges. The State provides funding to the Irish Wheelchair Association, and many other section 39 organisations. It is for the employer and the workers to engage and use the industrial relations machinery that is there at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to come to an acceptable agreement on pay. There have been increases in funding from the State to all of these bodies in recent years. It is a matter for the bodies themselves to manage that budget and to make pay arrangements with the workers concerned.

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