Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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212. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the annual back to school clothing and footwear allowance by €50; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12212/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 202 and 212 together.

The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The Government has provided €38.8 million for this scheme in 2016.

End of year records show that under the 2015 BSCFA scheme, payments were made to over 153,000 families in respect of some 281,000 children. The rate of payment was €100 in respect of children aged 4 to 11 and €200 for children over 12 years in second level education.

Using the number of children covered by the scheme in 2015 as a basis, the additional cost to increase the BSCFA payment by €50 for each eligible child would be approximately €14 million. Any change to the scheme to increase the rate of payment would have to be considered in a budgetary context.