Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 63: To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 86 of 2 November 2010, his views on the acceptability of basing a decision on the adequacy or otherwise of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance in 2010 on a report published in 2004. [43768/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs. A person may qualify for payment of an allowance if they are in receipt of a social welfare payment (including family income supplement), or Health Service Executive payment, are participating in an approved employment scheme or attending a recognised education and training course and have household income at or below certain set levels. The purpose of the household income limit is to ensure that the allowance is directed at those with the greatest need.

In my reply to the previous parliamentary question I outlined that my Department established a Working Group to undertake a review of the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme as part of its Expenditure Review Programme. The Working Group published its report in August 2004. That review concluded that payment rates did not warrant adjustment at that time.

The most recent Consumer Price Index figures show that clothing and footwear costs have:

Fallen by 7.4% in the last 12 months

Fallen by 27.6% since December 2006

Fallen by 38.1% since December 2001

Despite these reductions significant improvement have been made to the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme over the last number of years:

Since 2006 the rates of payment have increased from €80 to €200 for children aged 2-11 and for children aged 12-22 they have increased from €115 to €305. In addition, the allowance was increased by €215 to €520 per annum payable for eligible 18 year olds, as a compensatory measure where child benefit is no longer payable.

In Budget 2009, there was an increase of €50 in the income thresholds for entitlement to back to school clothing and footwear allowance. This has brought the income limits for the allowance for couples with one child to €563.60 and €410.10 for those parenting alone. In addition the limit is increased by €29.80 for each additional child. The Government has provided €82 million for the scheme this year - an increase of €59 million since 2006

Given these significant improvements to the scheme in recent years it is very clear that the adequacy of the payment is not decided on the basis of a report published in 2004.