Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 6 Jul 2022

Good morning, can I extend a very warm welcome to all of those groups in the public chamber today, referred to by Deputy Carnes Fulcher, Rolfe Guller. Minister, parents across Ireland are under, as you know, enormous pressure to meet extortionate back-to-school costs, and it's a big source of stress for families every summer, but this year is exceptional. Given the ever-worsening cost of living crisis, and for weeks we have been telling you that parents face huge back-to-school costs now, and that an autumn budget would be far too late for families. And time and again, ministers lined up to parrot the government mantra that Budget 2023, almost three months away, was the only way for government to help. And then, at dinner time yesterday, after weeks of stubbornness, and just two hours before a Sinn Fein motion calling on the government to act, your position changed. Suddenly, it was possible for government to step in with an increase in the rate of the back-to-school allowance for those already in receipt of that payment. Minister, you could have saved all of those families weeks of worry by making this announcement and taking this decision sooner. However, I do welcome your government's U-turn. I am glad that you have finally listened to the opposition, at least in part, because any extra financial support for families on fixed and low incomes struggling to make it to the end of the week is a very, very good thing. But there is a problem, Minister. You have left behind middle-income families who are in dire straits. Any family with a household income of €621 a week won't get a red cent of back-to-school allowance. A household income of €621 is modest. These are families who receive very little support from the state but now are fighting to stay afloat. You have left behind these families who struggle to pay the mortgage and the rent, who can't afford to put fuel in the car to get to work or pay extortionate energy bills. Families whose grocery bill is now through the roof to such an extent that many have started to cut back on basics. Many of these families, Minister, have used their savings, they have maxed out on their credit cards trying to keep up and now they have nowhere left to turn. So when your government had an opportunity to make a big difference, you have settled instead for half measures. Middle-income parents went out to work this morning feeling let down again. And they have no idea, many of them, where they will get hundreds of euros to send their children back to school in September. And Minister, when they ask why it is that they have been left out, what's your answer to them? I am always amazed at the ability of this government. To refuse to do those things that patently need to be done and to do them correctly and fully. The Dáil will rise for the summer next week so time is running out for us. Minister, I am asking you at this juncture to listen to the opposition again and do the right thing. I am asking you to expand the back to school payment to cover an additional 500,000 children whose middle-income parents are in desperate need of support. Minister, you hold the purse strings. You can make this happen. This is an existing scheme. We want you to expand it. And we are appealing to you not to pack up for the summer having left these families behind. Thank you very much. Minister McGrath, please. Thank you very much, Deputy MacDonald, for raising the issue specifically of the back to school costs that are a serious issue for thousands and thousands of families across Ireland at this time. We have said all along, and we stick to the position, that the budget will be on the 27th of September. We have this week published the Summer Economic Statement, which sets out what the underlying position is with the public finances. It means that we can have a budget package in the autumn of 6.7 billion euro, 5.7 billion of which will be on the expenditure side, investment in public services, improvements in public service pay, improvements in social welfare, and so on. And 1 billion euro will be on the tax side. We have also given a commitment that, in parallel with that, we will have a separate package of one-off measures that will be focused on the cost of living crisis that many families are facing. Not everyone, but some families are, and we acknowledge that, and they do need help. That is why, even outside of the normal budgetary cycle, we have made so many different interventions across this year, whether it be the reduction in VAT on gas and electricity, reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel. Both of those measures continue. The bullet payments on the fuel allowance, the reductions in public transport fares, reductions in the cost of medicines for family. Just to name a few examples of what we have done outside of the normal budgetary cycle. We acknowledge that at this particular time of year, there are extra pressures on families arising from the costs that need to be paid in July and August in the context of going back to school. And that is why we have made this further intervention, this very targeted intervention. These are time-sensitive costs. Waiting until the end of September in respect of these costs is not something that we can stand over. That is why we have made an intervention that does represent a significant investment. In total, €67 million, increasing the rate for a qualified child for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance to €260 for younger children and €385 for older children. That will benefit over 260,000 children across over 150,000 families. And as you know, in the budget, we did also make a change to the eligibility criteria in that we matched the income test for single parents with that that applies to couples. And we think that was an important change, which does expand the availability of the allowance, in particular for single parents who have to carry a lot of costs that they can't share with a partner. And we think that that was the right move. In addition, we are waiving for the coming school year school transport scheme charges, which will save up to €500 for individual families. And that will be of particular welcome to families in rural Ireland, many of whom rely on the school transport scheme and who otherwise would be facing long journeys and long commutes. And we all know what the cost of fuel is at this point in time. And significantly, we are expanding the free meals programme to all of the DESH schools. So in the last budget, we've added about 300 extra DESH schools to the programme. And we are now extending the free meals programme, hot meals, to the primary DESH schools across the system. That will mean an extra 60,000 children will receive a hot meal in school. And that's a very important intervention, because we all know the value of ensuring the children are properly fed and that they can avail fully of the potential that the education system affords to them over the period of time. So this is an important intervention by government. Does it go as far as some people would like? Of course it doesn't. Does it offset all of the costs? We never claim that it does. But it is of assistance to many thousands of families. It is a targeted measure, in particular in relation to the back to school allowance and also the extension of hot meals to children attending DESH schools. They are very targeted measures for people who will benefit from it. Deputy MacDonald. Minister, you took your time listening to what's just plain common sense in making a move on these matters now in July and putting money in families' pockets when they need it, when it will count. And I'm asking you to take the next step, because you're surely not saying to families that have €621 a week that they're home and hoes, that it's plain sailing for them. You're not asserting, I am sure, that these families, we describe them as middle-income families, it's not, it's very modest income coming into these homes. And these are families, as you well know, who cannot qualify for very many of the state's supports that others on lower incomes can qualify for. You're not saying to these families, or are you, that they are on their own. You can't do that. I absolutely appreciate the need for targeted measures, and in our own proposals, which you have borrowed from, I just want you to complete the journey, we proposed a targeted approach. So we're with you on that. Thank you, Deputy MacDonald. But you have to now address the fact that you have left substantial numbers of families and children struggling now. And I want you to extend the scheme to capture those children, some half a million of them, because, Minister, they need them. And never mind if you're not going far enough politically in the political discourse. This is about families, families that are struggling. And I'm asking you to simply follow the logic of your own argument and do the right thing. Thank you. Minister. Thank you, Deputy. There are income limits associated with the scheme currently. Of course, you quote the very lowest one. It depends on the number of children that you have. And certain incomes are excluded from consideration. They're not reckonable. House assistance payment, working family payments, rent supports and so on. That having been said, you know, you're now advocating for the very families that you believe should be paying 50% income tax rates. That is earning €700, €800 per week. This government, in the last budget, gave an individual earning €700 a week an extra €400, a couple an extra €800. So your newfound advocacy for these middle-income families, I don't think, is really going to fool anyone. And anyone who goes back and looks at your last pre-budget submission, you didn't propose a single euro of an increase in the back-to-school, education, clothing and footwear allowance. Not a single euro. And I've looked back at the various emergency budgets you've proposed, three in the last number of weeks. Not a mention of back-to-school costs. Not a mention of back-to-education costs. I think you said the package was about €1.3 billion and then all of a sudden you come up with another package of €160 million to tackle back-to-school costs. So, Deputy, look, that's not going to fool anyone. The government has adopted a coherent strategy. This is an important intervention and we will do more in September when the budget is brought forward. Thank you very much. Just before going to… Please, please, could we calm down please? Thank you very much.