Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Previous speakers have spoken about back-to-school expenses, but it is frightening to think that in 2012 it cost €686 for a child to go back to primary school and now it costs €967. It cost €1,090 for a child to go back to secondary school in 2012, while it now costs €1,474. To know that parents have cut back on food is frightening. As I have said to the Minister, last year in Carlow, like in many other places, we opened up what we call the soup kitchen, St. Clare's Hospitality. I came to the Minister and went down every avenue I could to get funding for that soup kitchen and for food parcels. We were told there is no streamlined funding for any help towards soup kitchens. In this day and age, when children are hungry and we are in the summer, parents are now cutting down on food to buy uniforms. It is an absolute disgrace that we are living in a society where children are now going to soup kitchens to be fed. I ask the Minister to make sure there is streamlined funding for soup kitchens and that these parents get help towards school uniforms. It is an absolute disgrace, in 2016, that we are going backwards.