Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister, I am very conscious of the pressure faced by families with respect to living costs and back to school costs.

In relation to school uniforms, my Department’s Circular 0032/2017 sets out the principles of cost-effective practice to be adopted by schools to reduce the cost of returning to school.

Under these measures, schools are required to select school uniform items which are generic and can be purchased from an array of retailers. Only "iron on" or "sew on" crests should be used.

The Circular also sets out that schools should consult with parents on their views and suggestions on cost reduction initiatives in relation to school uniforms.

The Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill, when enacted, will improve how schools engage with students and their parents by requiring each school to consult with students and their parents on individual school plans, policies and activities, including school costs. This will help ensure that the various views of students and parents will be heard and responded to by schools.

My Department recently announced a suite of measures designed to help families with school-going children returning to school in September which includes the non- charging of fees for school bus tickets which will provide families with savings of up to € 500.00 on the costs of tickets.

In addition, funding is provided to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.

My Department has ensured that centrally negotiated rates are available to schools for electricity and bulk heating fuels. These rates are available through existing frameworks sourced by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). OGP has run competitions specifically for Schools at a national level and the Schools Procurement Unit and the Department has communicated with schools and school management bodies informing them of the options available to them through these national arrangements. Information on how to avail of these arrangements is available via the Schools Procurement Unit website, www.spu.ie.

My Department has also provided funding of €17.2 million in 2021 to schools in the free education scheme to provide assistance for books including Book Rental Schemes. The School book rental schemes have an important role to play in reducing the cost of school books for parents and in order to support the establishment of book rental schemes the Approximately 96% of primary schools and 68% of post-primary schools operate a book rental scheme.