2026-07-15

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — research by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the University of Limerick from a survey of more than 720 post-primary schools showed that more than three in ten mandated the purchase of digital devices, including 17 per cent of Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS), and that there is a risk of growing inequalities in the education system; — the Barnardos Back to School 2025 survey showed the average cost of digital devices for second level schools has reached €430, up from €121 in 2022; — since 2015 the Society of St Vincent de Paul has received nearly 3,000 requests for assistance with educational digital devices; — savings to parents from the Primary Schoolbooks Scheme are now being undermined by requests for mandatory Information and Communications Technology (ICT) equipment that is more and more essential for schoolwork; — the Grant Scheme for ICT Infrastructure 2026 for schools was cut by €15 million, to €35 million in 2025, remained at €35 million in 2026 and there is no dedicated funding for repair or maintenance; and — manufacturers have warned that the shortage of memory chips will lead to significant price increases for laptops and tablets; further notes on school costs that: — The Zurich Cost of Education in Ireland 2026 survey, shows an annual cost to parents of €1,794 for primary school and €2,928 for secondary school, and that the number of parents taking out loans to help with costs doubled from 2025 to 2026; — Budget 2026 discontinued the two double Child Benefit payments, removed energy credits, the €400 once-off Working Family Payment, and the once-off family support €100 lump sum per qualifying child; — State Examination Fees have been reimposed on Junior and Leaving Certificate students; — the School Transport Scheme fees have increased to €100 per child with the family cap increasing by €95 to €220, the fee for primary school children doubled from €50, and increased by a third, €25, for post-primary students; — the increased cost of energy, insurance, waste and other essential services are not being met from the Capitation Grant, leaving schools reliant on voluntary donations; — at least 47 schools have been referred to the Financial Support Services Unit of the Department of Education and Youth in the 2025/2026 school year, due to rising costs, an increase of 38 per cent on last year; — the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear allowance (BSCFA) has been extended to 2- and 3-year-olds, but the €100 cut in the rate in 2024 has never been restored, and the income thresholds remain very restrictive; — parents are provided with no support for other substantial costs including mock exam and correction fees, school trips and tours, after-school and summer extracurricular activities and camps, and students in transition year have additional expenses above normal year-to-year costs; and — the 2017 circular on affordable uniforms is not being enforced, with large numbers still using crested or branded uniforms rather than generic uniform items; recalls that: — the Minister for Education and Youth has written to all schools noting that they cannot make it mandatory for pupils to purchase laptops or tablets, but there is no enforcement of this guidance; — there is still no ban on voluntary contributions forcing parents to have to fund essential school activities; and — the introduction of new curriculums for Leaving Certificate subjects has imposed further extra costs on post-primary schools; and calls on the Government to: — address the growing inequality from the digital divide and ensure all children have access to digital technology in school at no additional cost to parents; — introduce enforceable guidelines for schools on the requirement for laptops and tablets in schoolwork that protects families from the costs of having to buy digital equipment; — restore the school Grant Scheme for ICT Infrastructure 2026 to at least €50 million, and ensure there is a separate stream of funding for the maintenance and repair of equipment; — ensure students have access to a national loan scheme when laptops or tablets are required for school project work; — remove State Examination Fees, and reverse the increases to the School Transport Scheme fees; — restore the €100 cut to the BSCFA and expand income thresholds to increase eligibility and ensure more working families qualify; — ban voluntary contributions and ensure that school capitation rates are increased in Budget 2027 to meet the actual costs of running a school; and — mandate schools to use non-branded uniform clothing and ensure that parents have a choice of supplier to ensure competition on costs. Parents across Ireland are sitting at kitchen tables trying to work out how they are going to pay for another school year. For far too many families, the excitement of a child returning to school has been replaced by financial anxiety. Increasingly, parents are being forced into debt simply to educate their children. In one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, that should shame every single one of us. Education is supposed to be the great equaliser. It should be the pathway that allows every child to achieve their potential, regardless of where they come from or what their parents earn. That has always been a core Labour Party belief. It was the principle that guided Niamh Bhreathnach when she transformed education in this country. She understood that Government should remove barriers to education, not create new ones. The barriers facing families today may be different but the principle has not changed. The Labour Party believes opportunity should be determined by talent, effort and ambition, not by the balance in a parent's bank account. Technology has transformed education for the better and it is now an essential part of modern schooling. If digital learning is essential, then access to digital technology must also be essential. It cannot depend on whether a family can find another €430 at the end of August. Equality of opportunity means very little if opportunity comes with a price tag that thousands simply cannot afford. The Government cannot claim it did not know this was happening. It has had the research from the ESRI and the University of Limerick. It has heard the warnings from Barnardos and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It has heard from principals, teachers and parents, yet the response has simply not matched the scale of the problem. The research tells us that almost three in every ten secondary schools now require students to purchase digital devices. Even more worrying, almost one in five DEIS schools has introduced these requirements. The very schools established to reduce educational disadvantage are now asking some of the most financially stretched families in Ireland to spend hundreds of euro on technology simply so that their children can participate fully in school. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has received 3,000 requests for assistance with educational digital devices. Those are not just figures in a report. They represent parents taking out loans, relying on credit cards and sacrificing their own needs or the needs of other children because they refuse to let their children fall behind. As a former teacher, I know that teachers learn quickly. We see the child who quietly falls behind because they do not have the same resources as everyone else. We see parents apologising because they simply cannot afford another payment. Teachers will always do everything they can to support those students, but teachers should not ever be expected to compensate for Government failures. This is no longer simply a digital divide. It has become an education divide. A child without access to the technology required by their school is not simply missing out on a laptop but on opportunities. If access to learning depends on family income, then we are failing in our duty to provide equality of opportunity. The Labour Party welcomed the free books scheme because it genuinely helped many families but let us not pretend free books make education free. Free books do not pay for the hidden costs. Families do not experience Government decisions one at a time; they experience them all together. Government sees separate policies where parents see one enormous bill. The Minister has written to schools stating laptops and tablets cannot be made mandatory; however, parents, teachers and children know the reality. If a child cannot complete assignments or fully participate in class without a device, then that device has become mandatory in everything but name. We need to stop pretending otherwise and introduce enforceable protections for families. As schools become more dependent on technology than ever before, the Government has cut the ICT grant by almost €15 million. That grant stands at just €35 million with no dedicated funding for repairs or maintenance. Schools are expected to deliver 21st century education with 20th century resources. The Government is not reducing the cost of education; it is simply moving the bill from the Department of education to the kitchen table. The pressure on families does not end there. Parents have seen school transport charges increase and State examination fees return. Schools continue to rely on so-called volunteer contributions because capitation has failed to keep pace with the real cost of running a school. At least 47 schools have been referred to the financial support services unit in the Department in the academic year 2026 because they cannot make ends meet. That is not a failure of principals or teachers; it is the consequence of political choices. The Labour Party believes there is a better way. We call for enforceable national guidelines on digital devices, the restoration of the ICT grant to at least €50 million, a national loan scheme so every child can access a device where required, the reversal of increased transport and examination fees, the restoration of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, proper capitation funding and genuine choice for parents when buying school uniforms. This debate comes down to one simple question: do we want an education system where every child has the same opportunity to succeed or do we want opportunity to increasingly depend on what their parents can afford? The Labour Party has made its choice. Poverty should never determine potential. Education should be the ladder that lifts children out of disadvantage, not another bill that pushes families further into it. Education should open doors; it should never open overdrafts. I commend the motion to the House.

I thank my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Kenny, for tabling this important motion which highlights a massive issue for many families across the country. The cost of education report by Zurich shows the annual cost of sending a child to primary school is €1,794. Sending a child to secondary school is even more expensive at €2,928. This means parents could be paying anything up to €32,000 just to put their child through what is supposed to be free education. The Labour Party is clear that free education means free. It does not mean voluntary contributions, State examination fees or €700-plus on laptops or tablets. Uniform costs are putting financial pressure on working families who, in most cases, do not qualify for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. Parents contacting my office tell me they are forced to go to one supplier due to the requirement for school branding. These parents pay over €160 on uniforms and over €100 on shoes for secondary school students, according to a recent report by the Irish League of Credit Unions. It is a lot for parents who are struggling with the cost of living. Government needs to intervene and mandate schools to introduce non-branded uniform clothing so parents can shop around for the most affordable prices. I previously raised the ongoing issue of digital devices for students in this Chamber. This continues to be a source of concern for many working families and there is no clarity on whether these devices are mandatory. I have received three responses from the Minister's Department which state there is no requirement for digital devices in junior or senior cycle. The Minister has stated this in the replies and confirmed it to schools as well, yet principals and teachers have highlighted to me that the curriculum mandates digital devices for additional assessment components, AACs. I raised this in a parliamentary question to which the Minister replied, "There is no requirement currently under the new subject specifications for students to have their own laptops or devices; or devices of a particular type." This is extremely confusing for many school communities and parents who are having to bear the costs of these devices. Working families coming into my office are being told they must pay €700 or more for these devices and that they can only be bought from a particular supplier. People from all over the country tell me there is no free education in Ireland any more. One dad told me he had to buy three laptops, one for each of his three children. That will cost him over €2,000 - a cost the Minister's Department is saying he does not need to incur. That is before uniform costs and voluntary contributions are factored in. A family in County Meath tell me they are paying €600 while another in Cork tell me they are paying the same. Parents are paying up to €1,000 for laptops. Members can imagine the pressure that is putting on families. Some have to pay insurance on top of this, which is adding another €100 to the cost. Families in Kildare, Meath, Cork, Dublin, Wicklow, Waterford, Longford, Tipperary and throughout the country are contacting me and other Labour Party members saying they do not know how they will afford these costs. The cost of education keeps increasing year on year. Government was rightly praised for introducing the free books scheme but parents tell me that what the scheme gives on one hand is being taken away by the cost of laptops on the other. It is time for the Minister and her Department to provide clarity to school communities and parents by making a statement to the Dáil on this matter. We cannot let parents spend the summer months worrying about this. Every year, Bus Éireann and the Department of education places enormous pressure on those applying for school transport, which is another cost. This is a massive issue for many parents in my constituency of Kildare South who are fighting every year for a place for their child. Even if they are lucky enough to get a place, these families could face paying up to €200 for primary school transport and €220 for secondary school transport. In a cost-of-living crisis, this is an attack on working families who are doing their best to get their children to school and to get to work on time. When we factor in voluntary contributions, digital devices, uniforms, State examination fees, mock examination fees, school transport fees and more, we no longer have free education. We no longer have equal starts for each of our children. The Government needs to deliver on the State's promise of free education. We ask it to listen to the Labour Party, to parents and to school communities, and to show up for workers.

If we truly live in a Republic, we need to deal with the myth of free education. I have two children going to secondary school: one in TY and the other doing the junior cert. I have been through a lot of the cycle. My wife and I can afford the costs imposed but, over the summer, numerous families will be coming to my clinics saying they cannot afford what is ahead of them. In a Republic and a wealthy country like ours, we need to call out this myth. I acknowledge the advances made on schoolbooks but when we talk about the cost of laptops and iPads, there is no point in telling parents about the circular and the Minister saying they are not mandatory. There is not a single parent who does not want to do the best for their children. If a certain percentage of students in the school have these devices, instead of saying they are not mandatory, we should ensure everybody is on a level playing field as we head into the 2026-2027 school year. That is the way we should be looking at it. In many schools, there is a digital divide, which is completely and utterly unacceptable. Many people come to me about the ongoing costs they are facing. One woman told me her daughter is going into TY and the cost the family is budgeting for is well over €1,000. They considered not letting her do TY - letting her instead advance straight into fifth year - because they would not be able to afford it. That is not a choice any family should be having to make. There are the issues of transport fees, stationery fees, the ridiculous voluntary contributions, transition year, branded school uniforms and €300 for a PE uniform, which is insane. My colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, whom I want to commend, has outlined what we need to do to deal with these issues, namely, capitation grants, ICT grants, back to school allowances and all of that. I ask the Minister to please listen to the Labour Party. Our party truly believes that, when we in a republic say that we have free education, it should really mean free education.

This motion could not have come at a better time. Last week, a constituent was on to me. She told me that her child had finished school on Tuesday, 30 June and the next day the first payment request from the school had landed in her inbox. That is not the end of it. Between now and August, parents will receive email after email or app notification after app notification reminding them to pay. Sometimes, these reminders come twice a week. Then, throughout the school year, every time the parents open the school app, there is a request for more money. This is not the fault of schools, which are trying to operate with inadequate funding. The families are being asked to bridge the gap and the costs just keep mounting. It is the airtex tops, the school trousers, the crested uniforms and the voluntary contributions that we know are not voluntary. Then comes secondary school and the bills get even bigger. Parents are expected to buy Chromebooks, laptops and iPads, often designated through one supplier at inflated prices. One constituent mentioned to me that she had just paid €980 for her daughter who was starting secondary in September. The device cost hundreds more than it would have in Power City. Then she has to buy Microsoft Office, again, even though she already owns it. I do not understand why the Department has not established an IT service for schools. These devices are now mandatory, more or less, yet parents are carrying the full burden. It feels like the company Wriggle has an exclusive arrangement and no real competition. This is not an isolated incident. I hear it repeatedly from parents across my constituency. On top of that, the Government has brought back State examination fees. School transport charges have doubled, particularly for people going from zone 1 to zone 2, for kids in Rush and Lusk accessing the Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan. For families in Dublin Fingal West, particularly Ballyboughal, the situation is worse. The school bus service that goes from Ballyboughal to Lusk Community College forces parents to drive their kids to the outskirts of the town, absorbing fuel costs. That bus needs to go through the village so that students can walk to the bus. That should be looked at in the coming year. The message parents are getting is simple: at every stage of their children's education, they are met with another bill. Education is supposed to be free but for too many families it no longer feels that way. The cost of sending a child to school has become one of the biggest financial pressures for working families. Parents are doing everything they can but they cannot keep being treated as the Department of education's funding model. It is time for the Government to recognise the reality families are living with and take meaningful action to reduce the cost of education, instead of shifting more and more of the burden onto parents.

We all know that school costs continue to weigh heavily on families. I commend my Labour colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, for proposing this important motion at this time. We are all hearing it from people in our constituencies. I hear it weekly from residents of Dublin Bay South. Desperate parents are telling me what they have to sacrifice to ensure that their children can feel normal at school. People are utterly squeezed by the education policies of the Government and, indeed, the schools. It causes immense distress to parents, principals and teachers but most of all, it is impacting on children in Dublin Bay South and every other constituency. Children are going without essential educational equipment or are suffering the trauma of seeing their parents grappling with financial pressures, taking out loans to pay off loans and going without basic essentials just to fund an education that, as my colleagues have said, is free in name only. This week, research from the Irish League of Credit Unions shows that more than one in four families are getting into debt over school costs. Nearly 60% of parents say that back to school costs are a financial burden. It is no wonder. The average so-called voluntary contribution in primary schools is close to €100 per child and €150 in secondary schools. I know that the Government will say what it has done to ease the pressures on families. I anticipate that is what the Minister will be saying. We acknowledge progress on hot school meals and schoolbooks. These are policies that Labour has been pushing for years. However, half of the respondents to the credit union survey say that their costs have gone up since last year. The trend is going in the wrong direction. Education is becoming less accessible due to costs, when education in a republic must be a right and not a privilege. Deputy Kenny rightly focused on the digital divide in his motion. We know that the Minister has written to schools to offer guidance. I am looking at the letter. It clarifies that there is no requirement for students to have their own laptop or device for the junior or senior cycles. That is welcome. However, the Minister then says she appreciates that decisions on the use of digital devices rests with the board of management of each school. This is despite the fact that she acknowledges, in some cases, that families have been directed by schools towards commercial credit arrangements to meet the cost of buying a digital device for their children. As others have said, no parent wants their child to be without a digital device when others in the class have them. This is mere guidance; it does not really offer much support to parents. We have learned that three in ten schools are still requiring that parents cough up the expense. In a cost-of-living crisis, parents need the Minister of State to have their backs and to support them, as our motion asks, by restoring grants, reducing fees and enforcing what is now only guidance and is being ignored by many schools that are still requiring parents to purchase digital devices. The schools need to be supported, too. Labour has been to the fore in looking for adequate supports for schools. Principals tell us that they feel they have no choice but to levy parents because the public funding they receive is just not enough to provide the supports they need to ensure that children will be taught the digital skills that will help them access decent jobs. High-quality education costs money and the Labour Party believes that the Government need to do more to ensure resourcing in education.

I welcome the opportunity to respond to this motion. I recognise and share the genuine concern felt by many families at the beginning of the new school year, which can bring real and often significant financial pressure. I have listened to parents who have described the financial pressures they face when a number of education-related costs arise at the same time. That is why the Government has made affordability a central focus of education policy. The concerns reflected in this motion are ones that I have heard directly from parents and it is important that we continue to help families to meet these costs in a practical, evidence-based and sustainable way. While digital technology can greatly enhance teaching and learning, no family should be placed under financial strain because of an expectation that they purchase a device. As our schools continue to embrace the opportunities of digital learning, we must ensure that access to technology remains fair and inclusive for all families. I am very conscious that parents can feel under pressure when some schools seek the use of digital devices for learning. That is why, on 25 May, I wrote directly to all schools and made it very clear that there was no requirement for students to have their own personal devices for school. I encouraged schools to consider how existing ICT supports and funding could be used to meet students' needs before any expectation was placed on parents to purchase devices. I asked schools to carefully consider the financial impact of any digital device arrangements on families. In particular, I asked schools to engage with all parents and not just their parents' associations before making a decision on the use of digital devices. I also asked schools to ensure that no student was disadvantaged because of their circumstances. While digital technologies can support teaching, learning and assessment, the way in which they are used should be guided by the educational needs of each school. That is reflected in the requirement for every school to have a digital learning plan that sets out a clear vision for digital learning. We know from the research commissioned by the Department and published by the OECD in 2025 that access to digital technologies alone does not guarantee improved learning outcomes. Rather, their effective use depends on deliberate, pedagogically informed decisions about how and when technology is used to support specific learning objectives. This emphasises the importance of schools taking a planned and evidence-based approach to the use of digital technologies. To support this, the Department issued guidance to schools last May on the use of digital devices and the cost considerations for students and parents. The guidance asked schools to place affordability, equity and value for money at the centre of their decision-making and before introducing any expectation that families purchase devices to consider whether students' needs can be met through shared devices or school-managed loan schemes funded through the existing ICT supports. I am aware that Deputies have called for further measures. I share the fundamental objective behind those calls and I strongly believe that no child should be placed at a disadvantage in his or her education because he or she does not have access to a digital device. At the same time, we must recognise the way our school system operates. Under the Education Act 1998, schools and boards of management have responsibility for decisions at local level while operating within national policy. That balance is important. It allows schools to respond to their own circumstances, their own students and their own educational priorities, but it also means that decisions about digital devices should be grounded in pedagogy, informed by engagement with parents and students and mindful of affordability for families. That is why the Government has taken a balanced approach that involves clear guidance, significant investment in school ICT infrastructure and flexibility for schools to respond to the needs of their own communities. My objective is straightforward - every student should have access to the benefits of digital learning regardless of his or her family's financial circumstances. Technology should support better educational outcomes and greater opportunities for learners while remaining accessible, affordable and inclusive for all. While digital devices are a particular and growing concern, I fully recognise that the cost pressures on families go much wider. Deputies have also raised issues relating to school uniforms, transport fees, voluntary contributions, capitation funding and the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. I will turn first to school uniforms because this is an area where practical measures can make a meaningful difference for families. School uniform policy has traditionally been a matter for each school’s board of management, reflecting local needs and traditions. However, Circular 32/2017 makes clear that schools should take practical steps to reduce costs for families, including using generic items where possible, avoiding unnecessary exclusive supplier arrangements, using sew-on or iron-on crests and consulting with parents. We recognise that more can be done. That is why a working group, including the National Parents Council and education partners, is reviewing the circular to strengthen and update the guidance. We are also commencing work to promote uniform swap shops across primary schools, helping families save money while supporting sustainability. Since September 2025, all students in the free education scheme, almost one million children and young people, have benefited from free school books and core classroom resources. This represents an investment of €160 million and the full delivery of the programme for Government commitment to provide free school books for every child. We are also maintaining our commitment to affordable, accessible school transport. The school transport scheme, which Bus Éireann operates on behalf of my Department, has expanded significantly in recent years. Since 2018, the number of children and young people using the service had grown from 117,800 pupils in 2018 to over 180,000 pupils in 2025, which equates to an increase of close to 54%. It is worth highlighting that for the coming school year, a primary school ticket will cost 55 cent per school day, a post-primary ticket will cost approximately 60 cent per school day, and the maximum daily cost to a family will be no more than €1.32, regardless of the number of children per family who use the service. To help cover the cost of clothing, as of this month, the Department of Social Protection issued back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance payments totalling €47.8 million to over 123,000 families in respect of over 229,000 children. The scheme has been extended this year to include children aged two and three and now covers eligible children between the ages of two and 17, and 18 and 22 if returning to second-level education. A central tenet of our education policy is that schools need to always engage openly with parents and students - to listen as well as to inform them. That is the principle at the heart of the Education (Student and Parent Charter) Bill, which is progressing through the Oireachtas and is expected to go to Committee Stage before the end of this year. When enacted, this legislation will require every school to consult with parents and students on key policies and activities. It will set clear expectations for communication, transparency and respect between schools, parents and students. We have also taken major steps to support schools with their running costs. In budget 2026, my Department secured €39 million to increase capitation funding, giving schools greater flexibility to cover running costs. This includes an increase of €50 per pupil in primary schools, €20 per student in post-primary schools and additional support for DEIS and special schools. Over the past three budgets, capitation funding has increased by nearly 50% at primary level and 28.5 % at post-primary level, which is a very substantial uplift. I again thank all the Deputies for bringing this motion forward. The concerns raised today are real and reflect the pressures that many families experience at the start of the school year and they are concerns I also share. The Government's approach is practical and focused on easing pressure on families. The Government is supporting families through free school books, the expansion of hot school meals, increased capitation funding, continued investment in school transport, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, the strengthened guidance on school uniforms and digital devices. School costs should never stand in the way of a child taking part fully in school life. No family should feel that their child is at a disadvantage because of the cost of uniforms, transport, digital devices or other school-related expenses. That is why we will continue to work with schools, parents, students and education partners to reduce costs to support inclusion and to ensure that every child can participate fully and confidently in education.

I thank the Minister for her considered response. We need to get rid of voluntary contributions and move to generic school uniforms. This is something that has been done in the UK. It is much more cost-effective and efficient because the average cost of sending a child to primary school in this country is now €1,794 and the average cost of sending a child to secondary school is €2,928. With our ever-increasing digital world, apparently everything is online and it is somewhat impossible to be a member of society and not have to rely on technology. Now more than ever, students are forced to rely on technology such as laptops, tablets and other devices in order to fulfil the basic requirements of their school education. If a student does not have access to one of these devices or access to one at home, there is often no alternative and that could leave them excluded. Many families are forced to pay hundreds and thousands, particularly with the rising cost of microchips, for these devices. In a country experiencing a greatly increased cost-of-living crisis with everything having gone up exponentially in price, the last thing families need is another cost to deal with and that is the cost of these tablets or laptop devices. A study by the ESRI and the University of Limerick showed that of more than 720 schools, three in ten required the purchase of a digital device. We really need the Government to take action to address this and to help reduce the numerous costs so many families have to face just to secure a quality education for their children. This digital divide is resulting in a severe and growing level of inequality where so many communities, students and families are unable to purchase the devices they desperately need for their children's education. What we are trying to do with this motion is to ensure that all students have access to the technology they need in school by ensuring that the guidance supplied by the Minister that schools cannot mandate the purchase of digital technology is mandated and enforced and that, in instances where technology is needed, there is funding and a national loan scheme to support students who are unable to provide these materials for themselves.

I commend my colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, on bringing this motion to the floor of the Dáil. One line from his contribution this morning is at the nub of everything, where he said, "Poverty should never determine potential." That is the key component of this motion. What is happening to many families throughout this country is nothing short of unacceptable. Every year, parents brace themselves for the back to school season and, every year, the financial pressure grows heavier. Now, on top of books, uniforms, transport fees, exam charges and so-called voluntary contributions, families are being told they must purchase digital devices costing €400, €500 and sometimes even more. It is simply outrageous and it is already pushing hard-pressed households to the pin of their collars. We know the facts. The ESRI and University of Limerick found that three in ten secondary schools mandate digital devices, including 17% of DEIS schools - the very schools serving families least able to absorb these costs. Barnardos tells us that the average cost of a device has skyrocketed to €430 - which I think we will all agree is a most conservative estimate - up from €121 - which is also conservative - just a few years ago. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has received 3,000 requests to help with digital equipment since 2015. These are real families and real children who are suffering real stress. I have spoken to parents who were choosing between paying the electricity bill or buying a tablet their child must have in order to participate in class. Parents who are already struggling with rising rents, food prices and energy costs are now being told that, without a laptop, their child will fall behind. It is shameful that the State's own free book scheme savings are being wiped out by digital demands that schools have no business imposing without the proper funding. Let us be clear: the Government has also cut the ICT grant. It has failed to provide maintenance funding. It has reimposed exam fees, increased transport charges and left schools so underfunded that 47 of them have had to seek financial support just to keep the lights on. Meanwhile, families are expected to pick up the tab. This motion is not radical; it is basic fairness. We are calling for enforceable guidelines, proper ICT funding, a national loan scheme, the removal of exam fees, the reversal of transport fee hikes, the restoration of the back-to-school allowance and a ban on voluntary contributions that are voluntary in name only. Families cannot take any more. The digital divide is widening and unless this Government acts it will become a chasm. I urge every Member, Government and Opposition, to support this motion and stand with parents and children who deserve so much more.

As the Minister knows, parents are paying hand over fist for ancillary school costs, be it for school uniforms, laptops, school transport or the so-called voluntary contributions. We cannot say we have free education in this country if the whole architecture that enables proper participation is hugely expensive for parents. What is so regrettable is that some of the good work that is being done, like the school books scheme - something that has been long-championed by Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and others in the Labour Party - is being eroded by these additional costs now being faced by parents. The benefits of technology in education have to be available to everyone on an equal footing. Gone are the days when you would just have a hand-me-down textbook and a few Aisling copybooks that would only cost a few quid. Some parents are now having to pay hundreds of euro for devices if their children are to just fully participate in school. As this motion states, we are at risk of creating a digital divide and new inequalities in our education system unless we put further supports in place for low-income families. Kevin Shortall, principal of St. Aidan's Community School in Tallaght, in my constituency, said on RTÉ last week that the choice to use digital services is not available to some schools because of the associated costs for parents. There are larger issues of funding for schools that I would like to touch on now. The Labour Party has been calling for a long time for an end to voluntary contributions. Schools should not have to go cap in hand to parents just to keep the lights on. Voluntary contributions would not be necessary if capitation grants were where they need to be. I welcome the fact capitation grants have increased in recent years but the costs in schools associated with that are also rising at a faster rate and the capitation grants still are not enough. Just last year, the Sacred Heart Junior School in Killinarden almost had to shut its doors because it simply could not keep up with utility bills. Thankfully, that school secured an early payment of its capitation grant, but only after months of anxiety and stress, and, even still, that does not address the underlying financial issue. It is just robbing Peter to pay Paul. The school will need to get this year's capitation grant earlier again and the cycle just seems to continue. As the capitation grant is not covering basic operating costs, many school boards feel that to avoid running deficits, which they will get into trouble for from their governing bodies, they have to find funds elsewhere. Some schools will fundraise via parents' associations or by increasing the voluntary contribution, but that will not always be possible or enough. The ever-growing need for increased revenues coming into schools means that things like school halls or classrooms, which are community assets that are routinely used by community groups or after-school services, are now being rented out at higher and higher rates, forcing community groups to fundraise themselves in order to keep going, or to opt out. Much of that fundraising comes from the same source, which is the parents of the kids using those after-school services. This all comes back to funding our schools. All too often, despite the much publicised overspend in the education budget, schools still have to fight tooth and nail to get the resources they need. I never predicted that so much of my time as a TD would be spent working with local schools on funding and resourcing issues. In the past few months alone, I have worked with ten different schools. Scoil Maelruain Junior National School, for example, will lose a teacher next school year and will have to merge classes, as will St. Mary's BNS. St. Dominic's National School is looking for DEIS plus status. Sancta Maria College wants the Department of education to finish building its PE hall. Ballyroan BNS is looking for a new school building. Abacas Special School needs a new school building. Saplings Special School needs an emergency works grant.

Sin é, a Theachta. Tá an t'am caite.

The list of schools goes on. A lot of these issues are on the Minister's desk and I really hope they will be looked at favourably.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I thank the Labour Party for bringing it forward. The cost of sending children to school has become increasingly unacceptable. Education should be the great equaliser but for too many families the start of the school year brings anxiety, stress and impossible financial decisions. No parent should have to worry about whether they can afford a school uniform, a so-called voluntary contribution or, increasingly, an expensive digital device simply to ensure their child can participate fully in class. Digital devices alone cost hundreds of euro - up to €800. The Government insists they are not needed and not mandatory but guidance without enforcement offers no comfort at all. The resulting growing digital divide risks creating a two-tier education system where a family's income determines whether a child can fully participate in learning. That is completely unacceptable. The burden does not end there. The most recent cost of education survey shows parents are now paying almost €1,800 each year for a child in primary school and almost €3,000 per year for a child in secondary school. Even more worrying is that the number of parents taking loans to cover these costs has doubled in just one year. That should be a wake-up call for the Government. Instead of easing the pressure, this Government has reintroduced State examination fees, increased school transport charges and reduced a range of cost-of-living supports for schools and for families. Parents continue to subsidise the education system through so-called voluntary contributions because schools remain chronically underfunded. Principals are struggling to cover basic costs such as heating, electricity and insurance and families should not be expected to bridge the gap. While I welcome the Labour Party bringing forward this motion, we cannot forget that much of the funding crisis in education was compounded by a Labour Party education Minister, Ruairí Quinn, who slashed funding to schools - vital capitation and grants that still have not recovered. It was a Labour Party Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, who, among other vital supports, cut the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. Funding for schools and school-going children must be protected above practically everything else. They are just that important to the health of our society. Sinn Féin has consistently put forward practical and costed proposals to reduce the financial burden on families. We would properly fund schools so that voluntary contributions could finally be abolished. We have introduced legislation to reduce school uniform costs by ending restrictive single-supplier arrangements that leave parents paying inflated prices. We would restore funding for ICT and provide proper support for digital devices, so that no child is disadvantaged because his or her family cannot afford expensive technology. We would expand school transport, reverse the reintroduction of State examination fees, and ensure that supports such as the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance continue to help families meet the real cost of education. The cost-of-living crisis has not disappeared simply because the Government has stopped talking about it. Families know that every euro counts. They feel the pressure every time they buy groceries, pay a bill, or prepare their children for school. Education is a right, not a privilege. Access to learning should never depend on a parent's ability to take out a loan or put another bill on a credit card. This motion provides an opportunity for the Government to recognise the reality facing families and, importantly, to act. Sinn Féin will support it because we believe every child deserves the best possible start in life and every parent deserves a Government that stands with them rather than adding to their financial burden.

I thank the Labour Party for this timely and important motion. Sinn Féin supports this motion because the cost of sending children to school has become an unacceptable financial burden on families across the State. While the free book scheme is very welcome, the problem now is that the savings that many families receive are being completely undermined by mandatory ICT costs. In her opening statement, the Minister said schools should use the ICT fund in this case but was this fund not cut by €15 million? You really could not make it up. The Government cuts the fund and then tells schools to use it. The reality is that a growing digital divide is emerging in our schools, and while the Government celebrates its announcements, parents are being asked to pay more and more simply to ensure their child or children can fully participate in education. So much for free education. The Zurich cost of education survey shows that the annual cost to parents now is almost €1,800 for a child in primary school, and almost €3,000 for a child in secondary school. That is per child. Even more shocking is the number of parents taking out loans to meet these costs. That number doubled between 2025 and 2026. How on earth can that be described as free education? At a time when families should be proudly taking photographs of their children on their first day back at school, many parents are instead lying awake at night, wondering how they are going to pay the bills. The Minister said school costs should not stand in the way of education but as she can see here today, they do, and she needs to listen and act on that. The State needs to step up and properly fund schools. We need an end to the so-called voluntary contributions. We need action to reduce school uniform costs, and we need proper funding for digital services so that all children can access them. We also need the expansion of a genuinely universal hot meals scheme. The truth is that schools are being so badly underfunded that parents are being forced to subsidise essential education activities. This year alone, at least 47 schools have been referred to the financial support services unit. That is a staggering 38% increase. While Government Members will stand up and list the things they have done, some which are very welcome, they will conveniently ignore the things they have done to make life harder. They have reintroduced State examination fees, increased school transport fees, and cut the school clothing and footwear allowance. Most importantly, research from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ERSI, and University of Limerick, UL, is now confirming what parents and teachers have been telling us for years, and what the Government has chosen to ignore, namely the digital divide is real, and educational inequality is growing. The Government has been sitting back while schools are left with no choice but to pass the costs on to parents because Ministers have continually failed to properly fund our education system.

Every July and August, families steel themselves for the cost of children going back to school, including uniforms, books, and shoes, and, as the Minister of State well knows, school transport. Now, for thousands of parents, there is another bill waiting on the kitchen table. It is one for hundreds of euro for a digital device. The latest research from the University of Limerick and the ESRI confirms what families and schools have been saying for months now that the Government's hands-off approach to digital education is widening inequality instead of closing it. I have heard directly from parents across County Waterford who simply cannot absorb another €600, €800 or €1,000 in expenses. When they go to their child’s school, they are often referred to the credit union or the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, both of whom, to be fair, are stepping up but that is not the way it should be. I have also spoken to principals who are told to stretch their ICT budgets, and, in fact, that is the response I got from the Minister of State’s colleague, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, when I queried this. Those budgets have been cut. They are threadbare. They are already covering administrative software networks, cyber security, classroom technology, and audiovisual equipment for schools. The truth is that the Government talks about equal opportunity but too often it delivers unequal access. It celebrates digital education while expecting parents to bankroll it. It tells schools to prepare children for the future but refuses to provide the resources needed to do so. That is not the leadership required here. It is simply passing responsibility on to families and calling it policy. A child's education should never depend on his or her parents' ability to buy a digital device, and no student should be disadvantaged because they cannot afford the device his or her school requires. If the Government is serious about reducing back-to-school costs and about equality and access, it must properly fund schools' digital infrastructure and stop expecting families to bridge the gap. Níor cheart go mbeadh todhchaí aon pháiste ag brath ar acmhainní airgid a theaghlach. Caithfidh an Rialtas infheistíocht cheart a dhéanamh inár scoileanna agus deireadh a chur leis an ualach atá á cur isteach ar thuismitheoirí.

The idea that education in Ireland is free at any level is a myth, whether it is the so-called voluntary contributions or a student contribution fee that costs more even though the Government claims it is reduced. It is utterly galling for hard-pressed families who shell out hundreds or even thousands of euro a year. That is not to say there have not been positive initiatives - for example, the schoolbook scheme. However, the benefit many parents have seen from that has been wiped away by the increasing numbers of schools mandating the purchase of digital devices. We have an absolutely ridiculous situation whereby in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis continuing unabated, the Government has decided it is the optimum time to reintroduce costs for junior and leaving certificate examinations. Most recently, we had a situation whereby the Government's refusal to adequately fund our schools led to cuts being imposed on every Government Department. If the Government wishes to work towards truly free education and to avoid being the cause of stress and financial hardship in the year ahead, there are a few things it should do. It should ban voluntary contributions - Sinn Féin has brought forward the legislation necessary to do this - and adequately fund our schools, including ICT. The Government should ensure the school transport scheme is not the shambles it is every year, and that it is actually free. It should reverse its decision to reintroduce the examination fees. These would be real supports for parents and would finally put an end to giving with one hand while taking back with the other. That could become a hallmark of the Minister of State’s Government.

The summer is meant to be a time that families get some respite, a chance to de-stress and so on but very often, for a lot of families, it is as stressful as any other time of year as they are trying to deal with massive costs. I looked at a receipt a while ago from a mother of three kids, two in primary school and one in secondary, all in DEIS schools. The receipt was for one trip to the uniform shop. It was for a total of €348.50 and she told me that on top of that, the family has bought €70 worth of trousers and shirts, and that is before they get three sets of shoes, stationery for two, and bags for two. The tracksuit, made by a well-known branded company, cost €55, and the family spent €30 on a wool jumper, which incidentally, causes a lot of sensory issues for an awful lot of kids. We look at these costs which could be cut in half if we were actually enforcing the guidelines. We need some kind of enforcement mechanism. The sew-on or print-on emblems on uniforms would make a huge difference to parents. We need to ensure an enforcement mechanism. Parents, like the women I mentioned, will get the uniform and stationery, have their holiday, if they can afford one, and come back in September and get the letters. These are DEIS schools yet this parent could be looking at fees for the two schools - there are two kids in primary school and one in secondary - of maybe €400. That is even before, in some circumstances, families deal with costs around tablets that could total €500, €600, or €800. The cost families are facing are absolutely bananas, and real action needs to be taken, especially in terms of uniforms but also digital devices. Voluntary contributions are absolutely Dickensian. We have parents fundraising to keep the lights on. Schools do not get enough money to actually run, and it is not acceptable. We need a lot more action. Education is not free in this country.

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. I was chatting to my dad as I was coming in and told him I would be debating this motion in relation to supports for parents this morning. He reminded me, of course, that it was the Labour Party in government that cut those very supports. Then again, those in that party do have all their best ideas in opposition, as we both remarked, and not for the first time I need not tell you. The Minister indicated that she is very conscious that parents can feel under pressure when some schools seek the use of digital devices for learning. She said that is why she wrote directly to all schools on 25 May and made it very clear that there is no requirement for students to have their own personal devices. She also asked the schools to ensure that no student will be disadvantaged because of his or her circumstances. I do not know why we are having this debate at all if the Minister has written a letter. What precisely happened as a direct result of her writing that letter? I refer to the outworkings of Government policy in the survey Barnardos undertook. One third of parents are getting into debt in order to just pay for the basics. Over 50% of them are very concerned about meeting the back-to-school costs. Some 20% of parents surveyed by Barnardos cut back on food in order to pay their bills. I would say they are very relieved that the Minister wrote a letter. My God - a letter. If her letter does not have any impact - let us be honest; it has not had any impact - the Minister of State might outline what he will do that might go a bit further than writing a letter. We know that devices are essential. We know that parents want their kids to be able to participate. Let us say that a school has ignored the, I am sure, very strongly worded letter from the Minister. Parents want their kids to be able to participate. For many of them, however, that means getting into debt, going without and, in some instances, cutting back on food. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, the Government reintroduced exam fees. The very least it could do is not make matters worse for parents. Parents in this State pay the highest rents in Europe. They pay some of the highest energy costs. They pay the highest childcare costs. There is no sign of those costs being reduced. There are plenty of things outlined in the motion - they have been outlined in great detail by Sinn Féin time and again - that the Government could do to support parents in the here and now.

I welcome the motion. The matter to which it relates is something in respect of which Sinn Féin has been campaigning consistently for many years. There is no doubt that costs are rising and putting families under severe pressure over the summer months. At a time when children and young people are at home and with the good weather, constant demands on parents' budgets are causing massive concern. We need to see the end of the so-called voluntary contributions. I understand why schools look for them. They are trying to keep the lights on and trying to keep toilet rolls in bathrooms. It is the basic stuff they cannot afford. They cannot afford these things because of the gaps in funding. We need to end restrictive single-supplier arrangements. We have already called for this in our affordable school uniform Bill. It is bizarre that the State does not fund digital devices. What is the point of free school books when people have to find hundreds of euro to pay for devices? In a country that is home to most of the largest IT and social media companies in the world, surely, we must be leading the way in terms of technology in our schools. What has the Government done in respect of this matter? It has cut €15 million from the ICT grants for schools, which are down to a miserly €35 million. A recent survey puts the cost of education at €1,794 for primary school and €2,928 for the post-primary. Those are shocking costs for parents, particularly in view of the cost-of-living crisis. Of course, the Minister of State will point to the free books scheme. Surely even he can see that has been wiped out by the increasing cost of digital devices. This matter needs to be addressed. A letter from the Minister, however nicely worded, has simply not worked. We are often told that Ireland is a world leader in terms of quality educational systems. What we need is fair and equitable access to the education system for all of our children and young people. We often talk about nobody being left behind. I can tell the Minister of State that there are children all over this State who are being left behind.

At this time of year and with the great weather we are having, families should be planning holidays or spending days at the beach or elsewhere. Instead, for a growing number of families, this is a time of stress. They are already worrying about the cost of their children going back to school in September. On top of spiralling rents, mortgages and food and energy costs, they must also pay for school books, uniforms, school bags and shoes and make the so-called voluntary donation. The list is endless, and the burden for families is getting heavier. Sending children back to school is a significant financial burden, with an average cost of €1,607 in respect of primary school students and over €2,100 for secondary school students. These costs, details of which were provided by the Irish League of Credit Unions and Zurich, are forcing many parents into debt. Added to them are growing digital costs. According to Barnardos, the average cost of digital devices for second level has reached €430. That is up from €221 a couple of years ago. Families are going to be contacting me throughout the summer at my constituency office in Dublin Fingal East, just like they did last year. Parents and guardians are under pressure. They are seeking financial help. Many of them are borrowing money to clear current debts before the back-to-school bills land on their doorsteps. The Government points to improvements like the free school books scheme, but these gains are wiped out by the cost of living. The Government has reintroduced State examination fees, increased school transport fees, cut the back-to-school clothes and footwear scheme and removed the cost-of-living payments for schools and the double child benefit payment. Many schools still do not provide hot lunches for kids. Tackling these costs requires structural change, sustained public investment in education and schools and an immediate reversal of the cuts to grants and one-off payments and the reintroduction of fees. Our kids are our future; we need to invest in them.

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely. These are the summer months when parents start to think about how we will we stretch our finances to autumn, get everything that we need to ready and then still maybe take a holiday, organise summer camps, etc. The motion is, as stated, very timely. I thank everyone involved for their work on it. It has been very interesting to listen to the contributions so far. Everybody recognises that there are challenges in the country in the context of poverty. Ultimately, this motion stems from the fact that hundreds of thousands of children in this country are living in poverty. The Department is trying to implement measures to combat that, but there are differing views in terms of where the support is coming from and how effective it is. I will go through a few of the things that I think still present challenges. The capitation grant for schools was increased last year but has still not reached a level which will mean that schools are fully funded. It has not reached the level where it needs to be. In addition, it does not take into consideration the level of inflation. As a result, parents are offsetting the costs that the schools do not have the money to meet. Fundraising is happening, particularly in primary schools. I reiterate what I have said on previous occasions, which is that parents are not fundraisers for schools. They send their children to school and that really should be the end of the transaction. If education is truly free in this country, they should not need to fundraise. However, some parents like to fundraise for things that give schools a bit of icing on the cake but not for the bread-and-butter stuff. There should be no parents' associations, etc., fundraising to pay for the cost of insurance, toilet rolls, which I heard about from a few schools, or anything else that should be covered by the State. There should be no parents coming in to fix a shelf that constantly falls down or a hole in a floorboard because material in a prefab is rotten. That should not happen in our schools. Our schools should be fully functioning, fully kitted out and fully workable. The people who work in schools and the students who attend them should be able to do so in buildings that are modern and fit for purpose. Parents should not be offsetting the costs relating to the upkeep of schools that and schools should not have to wait for an extremely long time to get the buildings they so rightly deserve. Voluntary contributions should be banned outright. The payment of such contributions should not be allowed by any schools. There is an app that parents often have on their phones. There is a payment section in the app, and there will always be a little notification mark in that section to say that there is a payment outstanding. When people click into the section in question, they find details of the voluntary contribution. The word is "voluntary" and so that should not be allowed to feature on any app whatsoever. There should never be reminder letters telling parents they have not paid their contribution fee or the kind of passive one stating, "For those parents who haven't paid..." They should just be banned because the State should fully fund the school. We need to get rid of that and the sooner we do that the better. The issue of hot school meals has been a focus of the education committee for a long time. I introduced my first Bill a number of weeks ago with regard to the nutritional value of hot school meals. That is available because there were children who were hungry coming to school. It was introduced to combat that, to make sure that no child in primary school would be hungry. That needs to be rolled out to all primary schools. It is available to all primary schools but not all of them take it up because of the administrative burden on the principals and not all parents take it up because of the nutritional value. That needs to be rolled out, to be fully functioning and to be nutritious so that every child is able to have a nutritious meal in primary school. I would love to see that rolled out in secondary schools but that is a different day's discussion. The reintroduction of the examination fee six weeks before it had to be paid was an absolute disgrace. If at the time of the budget in October the Government knew that was going to happen, parents should have been notified that it was going to be reintroduced in the springtime. When parents were told, they had six weeks to pay but most people do not have such a flexible budget to allow them to pay the €160 or however much it is. When things are being reintroduced time needs to be factored in for that. There was an increase in the cost of school transport for families. I know the Minister said the numbers look very small but for parents with a number of children and on a tight budget any increase will put them in difficulty. I have mentioned school uniforms several times. Sinn Féin had a motion earlier in the year dealing with school uniforms. I put on the record that I think the uniforms for some children are very challenging. I would probably have a different view as to whether we should impose uniforms on children but again that is for a different day. Circular 0032/2017 has been in existence for almost ten years and in most parts is not enforced. There is no point in issuing a circular if nothing is going to be done about it. I am delighted the Minister has said there will be a working group to review and hopefully strengthen that. I would love if nobody had to spend hundreds of euro on a uniform. There should be iron-on or adhesive logos on a generic uniform that would not cost so much money. The reason we know things are so difficult for parents is that the Minister for Social Protection has said that he is going to give 126,000 families the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. That equates to 233,000 children in this country who need support for their clothing and shoes to go back to school. I do not see it as a great achievement that we are supporting them. I see it as an absolute disgrace that such a number of people need that support. I welcome that that funding and support is there for those families but I am still shocked that this affects 233,000 children, which is a lot of children, aged between two and 18. I think it goes up to 22 in some cases. There is a digital divide. The digital divide has been seen from Covid time, in particular. My own project in Ballymun, the anseo school completion programme, provided laptops and broadband. I know people still do not believe me that we provided broadband to families but we did because they did not have broadband at home and that is still the case for families around the country. There is a growing divide even though the Minister is saying that children and young people do not need laptops. However, there is an advantage if their family can buy them one and they can continue their school work at home. It is not good enough to say that schools can make up their minds about that. The Department needs to actually decide and give guidance like it does for other things. The Department needs to say they either do not need it or they need it and if they need it, it needs to provide the support money for that. My next point continues on from the digital divide. Some children with disabilities do not have access to digital devices to help them with their learning in school. Their schools might only be granted one or they might only be able to have access to one or two assessments. That needs to change. Every child who needs digital support for learning needs to get that as a priority and it needs to be available to them. While I do not want to eat into too much more of Deputy Hearne's time, I want to wish everybody on the education committee, the Minister, the Minister of State and those who speak on a regular basis about education a very nice summer. It has been a very difficult year for everybody. It is important to recognise that everybody is trying to work hard. We will keep pushing the Minister and the Department from this side of the Chamber but I hope they have a good break.

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is important to have a discussion about the context of education costs and back-to-school costs. Of course, the context is massive inequality in this country. The gap between the haves and the have nots is worsening year after year while we have 11 billionaires in this country who have a combined wealth equal to that of 3.5 million people or two thirds of the population. The top 10% in this country have 50% of all the wealth while half the population own just 10% of the wealth. We see the reality of that on a daily basis. In Ballymun, Finglas and across this country families are struggling to pay for the very basics and one of those is back-to-school costs, the cost of education. Education should be free. It is a human right. However, what it is actually doing is throwing families into even more stress on top of not being able to pay the basic bills. In my constituency to respond and support families struggling with back-to-school costs, the Finglas voluntary food and family support service, Feed Our Homeless, last year organised help for families with a pop-up shop for school uniforms and shoes. This year families are struggling so much they are reporting they are already dealing with being cut off from electricity and gas. Families and services are asking for support again. Families are finding it extremely challenging. One in five children in this country lives in a family below the poverty line after housing costs. Children and families cannot cover the basics. A second tier of child benefit would lift 55,000 children out of poverty but the Government will not do it. It costs the same as what it has given in tax breaks to developers, investor funds and large fast-food giants. Childhoods pass quickly. No child should have their future limited by poverty. Every child deserves a fair start in life and a chance to thrive. Child poverty is not inevitable. It is a policy choice. It results from decades of policy choices that have not prioritised child poverty. We need to end child poverty in this country and we can. Part of it is ensuring education is free and school costs are provided for. Ultimately, it is about ensuring families can cover the basics.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a grandfather whose granddaughter was told she needed to have an iPad in school and needed to pay €500 for an iPad. It is an absolutely crazy situation where we have free education in this country and yet many schools impose this massive burden on families, many of whom simply cannot afford it. I accept the Minister has written to schools saying they cannot make these compulsory but it is not wiping this practice out across the board. The costs are absolutely staggering and are rising each year. We need to have some analysis on whether it is good for children to be using iPads, laptops and so on. The Department of education has gone all-in on so-called ed tech without much real scrutiny of whether it is beneficial. That is what is driving schools to tell parents that the kids have to have an iPad, tablet or Chromebook. We need independent analysis of whether and when technology is beneficial in the classroom instead of just dancing to the tune of big tech as we do in so many other areas is of policy. Obviously if the Department is going to insist on ed tech being used, it needs to fully fund it. Instead, it has cut the grant scheme for ICT infrastructure for schools by 30%. It provides no funding for repair and maintenance of digital devices. We have a bit of a cruel joke whereby schoolbooks are being made free, which is great, but on the other hand we are using them less and instead parents are being forced to pay more and more for technology. The one issue I have with the motion is the idea that there should be a loan scheme for parents to buy laptops or iPads for their children. We are supposed to have free primary and secondary education in this country. I know we are a long way off from it in reality but we should not be legitimising the idea that parents should be forced into debt to fund their children's education. Instead, we should be demanding that the Government fully fund the cost of education for every child in this country.

I will cut to the chase here. The reason for the digital divide is that the Department of education has introduced a syllabus, particularly in senior cycle in secondary school, which has such a high level of assessment, 40% in many cases, that school principals have decided that students need laptops. It is because of the new syllabus the Department has introduced. There was a very good article by the RTÉ education correspondent on this in January. What is happening in schools is that Wriggle and other companies are wooing principals and trying to wine and dine them in order to get contracts. Overnight stays in the K Club and five-star retreats are being offered to principals. I am not saying that principals are going along with this or are doing anything wrong, I am just outlining the facts for the Minister of State. This should be done by means of public procurement. I absolutely agree with the previous speaker. We need to have an audit to establish whether it is good for children to be on screens. There is loads of scientific evidence that it is not good. Certainly, older children and teenagers need laptops or access to computers in order do assessments and assignments and to have a fair chance, which they do not have, in this education system. The Minister of State needs to make this a public procurement issue as opposed to leaving it up to individual schools. If students need equipment, it should be provided. During the pandemic, I returned to teaching at a school in west Tallaght. At that time, students were on their phones trying to cope because the Department of Education did not provide them with equipment to allow them to engage with remote learning. The addiction that many teenagers developed in respect of their phones during the pandemic is the Department's fault. I do not have time to go into all of the other costs that are being imposed on parents. In the context of the issue to which I refer, however, the Department needs to invest.

I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this really important motion, which addresses many of the concerns parents in my constituency are raising with me regarding the increasing back-to-school costs they face each year. I want to hone in on one of the biggest issues with school costs, which is the cost of increasingly mandatory ICT equipment for students. Something I was really pleased to see during the term of office of the previous Government was the roll-out of free schoolbooks. That made a big difference for a lot of families. However, the increasing frequency with which laptops and tablets are being made mandatory for students is seriously undermining that progress. In many cases, the cost of ICT equipment is ending up being greater than the cost of schoolbooks ever was. One parent was in touch with me recently to outline how more than half of her back-to-school costs for this year relate to a mandatory laptop that is going to cost over €700. Parents have been told by the school in question that these laptops will only be used for five years, which will necessitate another expensive purchase for leaving certificate year. Aside from the cost factor, there is the clear issue of creating additional waste through ICT equipment that cannot be passed on to new students. There is an expanding frontier of cost increases that the Government has not really got to grips with. The Minister for education needs to give clear and firm guidance around what is and is not acceptable in terms of placing ICT cost demands on parents. There also needs to be serious investment in the grant scheme relating to ICT infrastructure, with a view to ultimately making these devices free for families. This is only one issue we need to address in terms of child poverty and school costs. There are many more. We need additional child benefit, we need to increase the back-to-school allowance to deal with rising uniform costs and we need to boost funding for the school meals scheme in order to maximise quality and nutrition as well.

I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this motion. As a parent, I have seen the costs relating to sending children to school skyrocket over the past ten years. The situation is absolutely out of control. The recent back-to-school survey carried out by the Irish League Of Credit Unions shows that 59% of parents find covering back-to-school costs a major financial burden, with more than one in four getting into debt. I would say that number is rising now in view of the cost-of-living crisis. Technology is emerging as a pressure point, but uniforms remain the main pressure point. Some 15% of parents have had to avail of second-hand uniforms, while 43% of the lower cost options such as supermarket alternatives are not available due to the fact that more schools are introducing expensive branded items such as bags, coats and PE gear. Uniforms are supposed to represent equality, but they have become another financial burden on families who are already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis that has been going on for a very long time. Families are being squeezed from every angle, but particularly in Donegal where families, already living with a burden of defective concrete, are being forced to face additional hidden costs as a result of situations they had no part in causing. I refer, for example, to additional travel costs in circumstances where families are often forced to leave their crumbling homes and move to completely different areas while their children have to travel back to their own communities to attend school. Commuting costs are adding to the burden people must bear and to the pressure on family life, particularly in Donegal. Those who were previously on particular school bus routes no longer have the option of using those routes. As a result, parents are forced to engage in long commutes and to cover the costs incurred in this regard. I welcome the motion. However, in the context of the funding model for schools, including DEIS schools, I see examples of instances where schools are struggling. We need to improve this down the line. Families are struggling and their needs are not being met.

I welcome this comprehensive set of proposals from Deputy Kenny. We are at the time of year again when parents, particularly those in the low- and middle-income brackets, face the annual challenge of covering back-to-school costs. Families are facing a stack of fees and expenses in respect of uniforms, increased school transport costs, school stationery, so-called voluntary contributions, and laptops and IT equipment. In addition, State exam fees are back. Surveys show that the total cost per school year can accumulate to €1,700 for primary school children and up to €2,900 for secondary school children. For families with a number of school-going children, this can be a major headache. While I acknowledge that the free schoolbooks scheme and the book-rental scheme result in savings and are a help, those savings are wiped out by the cost of having to buy IT equipment. Such equipment is now mandated in schools and can cost up to €500 or more. Then there are all the other costs that the National Parents Council has consistently highlighted. These are the hidden costs such as transition year contributions, payments for school trips, etc. In the struggle to meet these costs, many households turn to moneylenders because there is nowhere else to go. In some cases, they pay penal amounts to illegal moneylenders who charge rates of interest in excess of 50%. In light of the cost-of-living crisis, there is an onus on us to do all we can to help the low- and middle-income households. We have a reasonably good education system, but we must deal with the issue of costs. In the context of the proposals in the motion regarding the introduction of enforceable guidelines for schools and the fact that some schools have a mandatory requirement in respect of laptops and IT equipment, it is important that these be mandated as opposed to just the subject of a letter that was sent out. We also need to restore the school grant up to an amount of €50 million in order to cover the cost of ICT infrastructure. We need to restore the €100 that was cut from the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and issue a ministerial order to schools in relation to generic uniforms. It is a terrible situation. I remember hearing a conversation between my mother and an aunt years ago regarding the benefit of school uniforms. They said that every child would look the same and there would be no competition for fashion, particularly in girls' schools. However, what has happened is-----

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta.

-----that we have stood that on its head. It is important that we increase the capitation grant for schools as well.

Anois, bogfaimid go dtí an chéad sliotán eile agus an Teachta Michael Collins.

Every parent knows that September has become one of the most expensive months of the year. While free schoolbooks are welcome, many families now face growing costs for other items. Parents are being asked to purchase laptops that cost €400 or more, make increased payments for school transport and pay charges to cover examination fees. For hardworking families with two, three or four children travelling long distances to school, these costs add up very quickly. At the same time, schools are struggling because the capitation funding no longer covers basic day-to-day expenses. Education must be properly funded by Government. It cannot be left to parents and fundraising committees. The State must not create a two-tier system whereby only wealthier families can afford to fully cover their children's education. Another huge problem which normally arises in August is that relating to school buses. Parents have no way to get their children to school because of the nearest school rule. The current and previous programmes for Government contain promises that this will be done away with, but nothing has happened. The rule needs to be abolished. That has been promised over many years, but here we are again this year. Parents are on the phone begging me for tickets for school buses. One lady was on to me the other morning to say that her son is going into fifth class. He had a ticket for the past four years and now he does not have a ticket this year. The neighbours are the same situation. That is not good enough. We cannot just grab a ticket from a child who had a ticket before and then find some kind of an excuse as to why that happens. Education should not be measured by means of the distance someone lives from school, and school transport should not be measured on that basis either. I want to raise a matter that Councillor Bill Clear brought to my attention. It is a very serious issue regarding St. Corban’s National School in Naas in County Kildare. It stepped up when the Department came calling, faced with a shortage of junior infants places. That left up to 30 children with nowhere to go. The school agreed to open a third junior infants class and take in an extra 25 pupils at the Department's request. Now, after doing the right thing, the school is being told it will not be given the additional teacher needed to staff that class. That leaves two unacceptable choices. Either 25 children are left without a school place this September, or two senior infants classes are merged into one class of 34 children. Does the Minister of State agree that schools should not be punished for helping to solve an enrolment crisis? Will he immediately sanction the additional teaching posts required for St. Corban's before the new school year. I would appreciate if the Minister of State addressed that here. Councillor Bill Clear has raised it as a huge issue. He has been to the school and met the parents. This is a crisis that has popped up in a new school in Bandon, too. It seems to be a crisis that is popping up here and there. Schools that are doing their best are still being punished. Sometimes, there needs to be a bit of movement because, for example, there could be a teacher short. I was chairperson of a board of management and know the difficulties that schools face just because they are one or two children short. That can be made up as the year goes on but it is a crisis that Councillor Clear finds unacceptable. Schools stepped up to the mark when the Minister asked them to and now they are being punished for doing so. While I am on the floor, I congratulate Councillors Bill Clear and Ger Dunne from our own Independent Ireland team on becoming mayor and deputy mayor of Naas, respectively.

Like many of the stories the Minister of State has heard today in the House, it is not strange that we have constituents coming to us regularly saying the biggest fear they have is the postman's knock. When they get the criteria for what is needed for their children to start the school year, those include €700 laptops, €600 iPads, tablets or something of that format as well as signing up to a Microsoft programme that has been selected. Despite your household perhaps owning a Microsoft programme, you have to buy into another one. I highlighted this in the House over 12 months ago on Leaders' Questions. I am still waiting for a proper reply from the Taoiseach. We have heard the ministerial circular that went around saying that people do not have to use laptops. Every one of us knows from our own constituencies that laptops, iPads and tablets are being used regularly by order of boards of management. I have to acknowledge the Government's good work and call it out, including the free books scheme and the school meals. However, the Government has made a hames of the school meals. Deputy Collins has produced photographs in the House of food that you would not give to a farm animal, yet it is being produced for children. That is the standard that the Government has come up with. That has to be addressed. When it comes to education, Deputy Moynihan is a Fianna Fáil Minister of State. I remember the great days of Donogh O'Malley. I would what Donogh O'Malley would think if he saw the education shambles that the Government presided over in this country over the last 20 years. The Government has not addressed school uniform problems or the fact that most parents have to pay €300 for a PE kit. It has not addressed the problem that parents have to give this voluntary contribution, which is really not voluntary when schools are putting out news bulletins listing the names of families who have contributed and those who have not contributed. That is happening regularly. Parents are suffering, wondering how they will get the money for a school tour and how they will get the money to send their young ones up to the Dáil to tour the House. We have dozens or hundreds of schools that visit this House and many parents in my constituency in Cork have told me that they could not let their young ones go simply because they did not have enough to pay for their lunch or the bus. That is in the wealthiest country in Europe. We should all be inside here hanging our heads in shame about how we are treating people. Just go outside the gate and the Minister of State will see Cara Darmody outside Leinster House again, highlighting a law that the Government has been breaking for over 20 years. What was the Taoiseach's answer to me yesterday? He said we might have to look at and change the legislation. He does not want to be the lawbreaker. He is happy to have broken the law for the last 20 years and presided over that, but now he has decided that instead of fixing the problem, he will change the law so that he is not culpable. It is unbelievable to even be allowed to give that answer to the representatives in this House. The Government has failed the country again. It has failed the 22,000 children in terms of assessments of need, it has failed the school meals programme, which is badly thought out, and it is failing again. I commend the Labour Party and the motion to this House.

We are in a cost-of-living crisis. Groceries are up by 40% and diesel is up by 60% over the past five years, yet another bill is landing every August for families who send their children to school. That bill is an ICT bill. It is a bill for a laptop. Incredibly, the Government introduced free books last year but has this year introduced what is effectively mandatory ICT at a cost that is significantly higher than the books ever were. Many families have contacted me and outlined bills of €1,000 for a laptop. The same families came into my office and showed me second-hand laptops that they already owned but that the school principals and authorities said could not be used, meaning the families had to purchase brand new laptops from one specific supplier. The Government created this problem and has passed the buck to the principals. The principals are now trying to deliver a curriculum that was never designed in schools because the Department and officials did a solo run to radically change the curriculum. At both junior cycle and senior cycle, the Government introduced a massive amount of continuous assessment without any provision for how that continuous assessment would be delivered, and now principals are scratching their heads, wondering how they deliver all of this continuous assessment in an age where many children do not have personal laptops. They sent out letters to families with €1,000 or €1,500 bills for laptops. I wrote to the Minister and asked if she could make a statement on this, and the Minister said that no child should be required to purchase a laptop, yet the bills and letters are still landing because the principals do not know what else to do. It is very clear to me that the Government has essentially created a problem as a result of lack of consultation, and now the people paying the costs are the hard-pressed families who are struggling with the cost of living. It is a very similar situation to the school uniform, where we had single suppliers for crested uniforms. These suppliers were often charging double what other suppliers were. We have created the very same problem and the Government has learned nothing. It needs to intervene here. I am dealing with families who are afraid to speak up and raise the fact that they do not have the money to afford this, and that their children may be adversely affected by not being on the school team and so on. It is perhaps irrational but this is happening on the ground. The other question that the House has not addressed is whether it is good for children to be on laptops from 9 o'clock to 4 o'clock during the school day and then to go home and be consumed with social media. The Government has created this with a solo run with the change of curriculum, and now it is up to the Government to address it.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an bPáirtí an Lucht Oibre. This highlights what many families are experiencing right now. Many people have been in contact with me. Even today, I met parents who were under enormous pressure because of the cost of uniforms, books, transport and school activities. Many families are being told that they must now spend hundreds of euro on a Chromebook, laptop or other digital asset, and it is still not something that they can afford. Over recent weeks, one parent told me that their school insisted that these were essential learning tools for every student because of the new leaving certificate curriculum, yet parliamentary questions that I submitted confirmed that there is no departmental requirement for students to have a personal digital device at either junior or leaving certificate level. That contradiction leaves parents and students whom I represent caught in a middle ground. On one hand, the Department is saying they are not mandatory and, on the other, schools are telling parents that they must purchase one. I understand that the Minister of State was in north Dublin. I thank him for coming out to those schools, but parents need to be fully consulted about any decision and schools should avoid unnecessary costs where possible. Those are sensible principles. They are not always being reflected in practice. Parents are also raising legitimate concerns with me and the Department about where schools require students to purchase devices through a single supplier. They deserve to know how that supplier was selected, whether public procurement guidance has been followed and why students cannot use an equivalent device that they may already own. Technology undoubtedly has an important role in education. I do not dispute that fact. I came through education while the technology was developing. However, access to education or a curriculum should never depend on a family's ability to spend several hundreds of euro on a particular device. If the Department's position is that personal devices are not mandatory, then policy should be applied consistently across Ireland, as parents deserve clarity and no young people should feel excluded from education because of the cost of a laptop.

I am thankful for the opportunity to discuss this important matter. I acknowledge the massive improvements that have been made. The national broadband plan is almost complete. Massive inroads have been made in my home county of Meath, including in the roll-out and the access it provides. That is most welcome, particularly in the area of assistive technologies for young people and older people with intellectual disabilities. It is the connectivity piece. The cost, however, is paramount. One part of me is slightly incredulous that we are having the discussing in 2026 because my experience goes back to 2018, 2019 and 2020 in Ratoath, County Meath. A Ratoath report was carried out by Ms Cora Dunne and Dr. Ann Marcus-Quinn. It made a significant contribution to discussions around the introduction of mandatory digital devices in post-primary education. It highlighted parental concerns regarding the cost and compulsory purchase. The roll-out was halted in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning and having one's own device become an essential. Other than that, the long-term implications of mandated devices was largely paused rather than fully developed. In 2024, there was another report. Then, there was an OECD report in 2025, which highlighted that Ireland could benefit from a more structured and equity-driven digital education system. The models in France and Estonia provide stronger mechanisms for ensuring universal and consistent access, but they focus on the cost. Most recently, there was the July 2026 ESRI report, working paper No. 836. I apologise if I am repeating what other Members have gone through. The information is there. The plan and suggestions are effectively worked out for us. What we need now is to expand on the policy. The key finding in all three reports, which span the last seven years if we take into account 2019 when we began that exercise in Ratoath College, is that we risk reproducing and intensifying existing educational inequalities. Family income is the primary determinant, followed by school resources and institutional capacity. Even within that, there is variation between school sectors and governance structures. In terms of taking the learnings and recommendations from France, Estonia, Malta and Austria, there is a roadmap. Like it or not, it may mean pulling back from the commercial one-to-one contract between the family and the provider and centralising it. That will encompass centralised State procurement, standardised device specifications and collective purchasing arrangements, having guidelines, and having additional targeted financial supports for schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Other factor can be looked at such as VAT relief, hardware refurbishment schemes and buyback programmes. That is the approach Austria and Malta take. We are rapidly moving to the point where we have to have a centrally led approach to this subject.

I, too, am glad to be able to speak on this motion today. I compliment Páirtí an Lucht Oibre for introducing it. While we often the cost of education in terms of books, uniforms and transport, the reality for many families is that the financial pressures associated with rearing children have never been greater. I acknowledge that the schoolbooks scheme has been a positive development. It has delivered genuine savings and a significant burden has been removed from parents in many households. That support has made a real difference and it is important that we recognise it. However, parents are telling us that the savings are increasingly being swallowed up by a wide range of other costs. The loss of the double child benefit payment and other cost-of-living supports has come at a time when families are facing rising bills across every aspect of daily life. Parents are not just paying for education. They are paying more for food, energy, insurance, childcare and gach rud eile. One issue that deserves particular attention is the cost of extracurricular activities. Too often, participation in these activities depends not on a child's talent or interest, but on the ability of the parents to pay. This is creating an uneven divide and it has denied opportunities to many children. It is downright wrong. It should not be like that. If parents have enthusiasm for music or something like that, whatever talent the child has, they should be nurtured. "Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí" used to be the old adage. Music education is a perfect example. Some schools provide excellent music programmes and opportunities for students to learn instruments and participate in assemblies. Other schools offer very little. Where lessons are available privately, parents can be paying up to €25 a lesson and more before the cost of purchasing and maintaining the instruments. For many families, this is simply beyond their reach. These experiences are highly important to a child's development, confidence, which has never been more important, and well-being, yet too many families are being priced out. We must recognise the growing cost associated with uniforms. Despite the guidance promoting affordable uniforms, many parents are still required to purchase expensive crested and branded items. Parents also face substantial bills simply because they are required to buy specific items from a specific supplier. That is not fair and is not a balanced market either. There is no good reason that generic uniforms or PE clothing cannot be used in most cases. Parents should have the freedom to shop around and buy affordable items themselves. Competition is the spice of trade. It keeps the price down. Alongside these pressures, parents are increasingly faced with the expectation that they provide laptops and other digital devices for their children. While technology is important, why should parents be carrying that cost? Families have benefited from the schoolbooks scheme. We should be creative and try to assist families in purchasing this expensive and necessary equipment. The point has been made earlier that they are on their laptops all day in school and then they go home and are on social media all night. It is not good for the holistic development of the children and young adults.

I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion. The motion before us reflects a concern that many families will recognise, namely, that the costs associated with going back to school can place real pressure on household budgets. Both the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and l, and the wider Government, recognise that concern. Our focus is on practical measures that reduce costs, support schools and ensure every child can participate fully in school life. The issues raised today are important. I thank all Deputies who raised the issues across the Chamber. They reflect the real and often significant financial pressures that many families face at the start of the school year. Those pressures are felt in very practical ways: through the cost of uniforms, transport, classroom materials and, increasingly in some cases, digital devices. The Government recognises those pressures. More importantly, we are acting to reduce them. Our aim is simple: school costs should never stand in the way of a child taking part fully in school life. A particular focus of today's debate has been the issue of digital devices in schools. Deputies have raised legitimate concerns about the costs that can arise for families where schools use digital technologies as part of teaching and learning. The Government recognises these concerns. Digital technologies can support high-quality teaching, learning and assessment. They can open new opportunities for students, support learning and help young people develop the skills they need in an increasingly digital world but technology must support inclusion and must not become a new source of inequality. That is why the Minister, Deputy Naughton, wrote directly to all schools on 25 May following concerns raised by parents about the growing costs associated with digital devices. The Minister made it very clear that there is no requirement for a student to have their own personal device for school. This is an important point, and one that bears repeating. There is no national requirement that students must own or purchase a digital device in order to attend school or participate in learning. Where schools are considering the use of digital devices, they are expected to take full account of the financial impact on families and to ensure that no student is disadvantaged because of their circumstances. The guidance issued by the Department asks schools to place affordability, equity and value for money at the centre of their decision-making. Before introducing any expectation that families purchase devices, schools are encouraged to consider whether students' needs can be met through school shared devices. Importantly, schools can use ICT grant funding to purchase and manage such devices. The guidance also asks schools to consult with parents and students before introducing or reviewing digital device arrangements. It encourages schools to take account of the overall cost of education for families: to provide clear information on device requirements; to avoid exclusive purchasing arrangements; and to consider options such as second-hand, refurbished or reused devices where these can reduce costs. This is the right balance. It respects the role of schools and boards of management in making decisions at local level while making clear that those decisions must be informed by engagement with parents and students and by a clear commitment to affordability and inclusion. While digital devices have been a strong focus of the debate, the Government also recognises that school costs go much wider. Families can face a range of costs at the start of the school year and those costs can arrive all at once. That is why the Government has taken action across a number of areas. The free books scheme, which was introduced, is a great example. It is one of the most significant measures ever introduced to reduce the cost of education for families. Since September 2025, almost 1 million children and young people have benefited from free books and core classroom resources. That represents an investment of €160 million and the full delivery of the programme for Government commitment to provide free schoolbooks for every child. The Government has also increased capitation funding to schools, as the Minister outlined earlier. In budget 2026, €39 million was secured to increase capitation funding, giving schools greater flexibility to meet running costs and reduce reliance on parental contributions. Over the past three budgets, there has been a substantial uplift in capitation funding at both primary and post-primary levels. The Government is also maintaining investment in school transport. The school transport scheme has expanded significantly in recent years, with the number of children and young people using the service increasing from just under 120,000 in 2018 to over 180,000 in 2025. There has been an increase of over 145% in investment in the scheme from 2019 to 2025. The scheme expenditure was €219 million in 2019, rising to €537 million in the last school year. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance continues to provide important support to families. As of this month, payments totalling €47.8 million issued to over 123,000 families for over 229,000 children. The rate of payment per child is €160 for children aged between two and 11 and €285 for children aged 12 years and over. These are practical supports that make a real difference for families. This has been a valuable debate and I thank all Deputies for the sincerity of the debate and for bringing forward the motion. The concerns raised are real. They reflect the pressures that some families can face at the start of the school year. We are implementing practical measures that make real-world differences to families. We are supporting families through free books, increased capitation funding, investment in school transport, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, and the expansion of the hot school meals programme. We are also strengthening guidance on school uniforms and strengthening the voice of parents and students through the Student and Parent Charter Bill. The Department has issued guidance asking schools to prioritise affordability, equity, consultation and value for money. The Government will continue to work with schools, patrons, students and across the education partners to reduce costs, support inclusion and ensure every child can participate fully and confidently in education.

I welcome to the Gallery former councillor Peter Coyle, a great servant to the Labour Party and Fingal local government for 20 years. I thank Deputy Kenny for bringing forward this motion on behalf of the Labour Party and the majority of Deputies for their contributions to this debate today. I have to qualify that thanks as a couple of the Sinn Féin contributors chose to take a narrow, decontextualised view of Labour’s own record in education. To focus that lens on Sinn Féin, which held the education brief in Northern Ireland for 16 years, it was a time of multi-annual budget cuts, multiple fee and state exam increases and, indeed, redundancies of teachers and support staff. The charge made against us was that we have our best ideas in opposition. Maybe the charge against Sinn Féin is that it has its best ideas in the South because its record in the North in education is nothing short of disastrous.

What about the Tories?

You have had your moment. We have put this motion down in July 2026, at a time of relative plenty. While over the past number of years things have been brought in to attempt to relieve the burden on parents and families in relation to school costs, this Government has continued, almost by stealth, to squeeze families in relation to the cost of education. State examination fees continue to go up. School transport fees continue to go up under this Government. The cost of ancillary services, energy, insurance and waste services, which all impact on school and education, continue to go up while the supports that parents rely on, like the double child benefit payment or energy credits, are gone. These are all under this Government. Again, it is a squeeze - a stealth tightening - on parents and families in relation to education. If the Government was really serious about education, it would do something to enforce the 2017 circular on affordable uniforms rather than just talk and hope that schools bring it in. The study published this month by the Irish League of Credit Unions, ILCU, found that 59% of parents said covering back-to-school costs is a financial burden and more than one in four is going into debt. That should be the wake-up call that this Government needs that whatever measures it believes it is taking are nowhere near good enough and that parents and families are struggling. We say we have a free education system when, in fact, we do not. There are huge inequalities. There are haves and have-nots and if you are a have-not in this country, you feel it in many different ways and one way you feel it is in access to and the ability to enjoy education. This Government is not doing enough and this motion sets out ways that it can do more.

I want to thank my colleague, Deputy Kenny, for bringing forward this really important motion and welcome the support across the Opposition. He does appear to be getting to some Deputies in Sinn Féin. No one wants to be talking about going back to school but the back-to-education allowance has landed this week and many parents are having to deal with an existing cost-of-living crisis. It beggars belief that after years of budgetary surpluses the at-risk of poverty rate and the deprivation rate continue to go in the wrong direction. It is shameful that with all the money being dished out, we are seeing a rise in the at-risk of deprivation rate among one-parent families. Almost half of all one-parent families are still experiencing deprivation and there is a rise in the at-risk of poverty rate for two-parent families, with one in eight of those families experiencing deprivation. The back-to-education costs are a very big part of the story of child poverty and deprivation in this country and the ILCU survey very powerfully spoke to that this week. Talking about back to school feels like Groundhog Day with regard to school uniforms. As my colleague Deputy Smith said, there is a Department circular that the Department has failed to enforce across schools. It is extraordinary to listen to the Minister of State talk about guidance from the Department to schools saying that no family or pupil should be forced to purchase a device. The reality, as we know, is that 30% of schools have mandated their pupils to get devices. Some 17% of those schools are DEIS schools. We know that some tech companies, a huge number of which have their EMEA headquarters here in Ireland, are supporting schools, including some schools in my constituency, but that is not good enough. We need the State to step in. It is frankly appalling that the ICT grant was cut last year and has remained the same this year and that there is no provision for maintenance and repair. Our key message to the Minister is that there needs to be a proper State policy with regard to ICT use in our schools, there needs to be proper supports to families to access the devices, and we need to end the digital divide and the very blatant inequality emerging to a much greater extent because of access to ICT devices in our schools.

To finish the debate, I thank all Deputies across the House for their contributions. I am quite surprised by the contributions from some Deputies in Sinn Féin, which holds the finance Ministry in the North of Ireland, where there is currently a €700 million shortfall in the Department of Education.

Do not interrupt, please.

Sinn Féin Deputies come in here and have a go at the Labour Party for something that happened 15 years ago, when I was in primary school and 11 years old.

Through the Chair, please.

It is quite interesting. I am not sure where their priorities lie in providing solutions.

Stand for election in the North and see how you get on.

Allow the contribution, Deputy.

The priorities lie in this motion. Instead they come in here and have a go off the Labour Party - no problem at all.

We are only telling you the truth, Eoghan.

No, not at all.

Deputy Bennett, you are out of order. I ask Deputies to stop interrupting. Allow the closing speech.

Sinn Féin should get back to the priorities in this motion. The Minister in her speech referred on a number of occasions to encouraging schools: I encourage schools to consider how existing ICT supports and funding could be used to meet students' needs before any expectation was placed on parents ... Using the words "encourage schools" is extremely blasé in that it does not pay for digital devices. Saying to schools "I encourage you to look into not using digital devices" does not pay for those digital devices that are required. The Minister referred to a digital learning plan. In our motion we have called for a ring-fenced maintenance fund to be provided by the Department of education for schools. Having been a teacher in two schools, I recognise that these tablets and these laptops that are provided to schools break and that maintenance for them is coming out of capitation grants that cannot be fulfilled by the schools because they are using capitation grants elsewhere. If we had a ring-fenced maintenance fund for these laptops and tablets, it would provide the necessary funding to be able to maintain them. As regards the Minister's reply, guidance to schools is not enforcement to schools. As regards providing guidance and letters to schools that say, "My Department believes that it is not necessary to have laptops and tablets; I am issuing guidance on this", without those enforcement mechanisms being put in place, schools can still mandate children to have a personal digital device, which is what they are doing. In relation to the Minister's comment that "decisions about digital devices should be grounded in pedagogy, informed by engagement with parents and students and mindful of affordability for families", her own Department has created a senior cycle reform, leaving certificate reform, and almost 40% of that leaving cert work is project work now that almost includes the use of a digital device consistently. The Minister said when speaking about school uniforms that Circular 32/2017 makes it clear that schools should take practical steps to reduce costs for families, including use of generic items where possible, avoiding unnecessary exclusive supplier arrangements. It is just not happening. That circular needs to be revisited and schools need to be issued with further guidance. It is a guidance letter once again, a guidance circular that was produced by the Minister at the time in 2017 that gave absolutely no consequences to the school for having branded school uniforms. In my opening speech I, as well as my colleagues, welcomed the free books scheme. It was an essential piece that was brought in within the Department of Social Protection and the Department of education that genuinely helped families. However, that free books scheme is now being undermined 100%, unfortunately, by a lot of schools mandating children to have digital devices. That free books scheme was extremely welcome. I welcomed it as a teacher; I welcome it now as a politician. Unfortunately, it is now being undermined by many schools across the country mandating children to have digital devices. The Minister outlined the cost of school transport. School transport should be free. I do not care if it is €1.32 for families right across the country. It should be free. We should have free school transport in this country for every single child. No financial barrier should be put before a child who needs access to schools, predominantly children living in rural areas. In relation to the engagement and consultation charter Bill, of course consultation with parents is essential, but drawn-out consultation right now will not pay for the significant back-to-school costs that parents are sitting around the kitchen table right now wondering how they will be able to afford in the next month or two.