THE AWARDING of more than €7 million in back-to-school allowances last year to the parents of 40,000 children aged three or under and who do not go to school has been described as “completely unnecessary”.
The Government yesterday said it had underestimated the amount of money required to fund the back-to-school clothing scheme this year and blamed a substantial increase in the number of parents applying for the allowance.
The scheme offers a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn and, in a written response to a Dáil question from Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said the €82 million earmarked to fund it this year would not be sufficient.
Mr Ó Ríordáin had asked how much was spent last year on children aged between two and three.
In a written response, Ms Burton said the scheme had cost €77.4 million in 2010 with 162,500 payments made covering approximately 325,000 children. Of the total, 39,800 children aged between two and three benefited at a cost of €7.96 million.
The Minister said the provision for 2011 had been €82 million but said that “in light of the number of payments made this year, some 183,000 to date, this figure will be exceeded.”
“It came as a bit of a surprise to discover that 39,800 children aged two to three years benefited from the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme last year when they were not of school-going age,” Mr Ó Ríordáin said. He said it was “completely unnecessary as the vast majority of children in this State start primary education at age four or five”.
He said he understood many parents enrol their children for the early childcare and education scheme “but I don’t believe that uniforms are the norm in any of the institutions that participate”.
