Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has urged the government to act urgently to protect families from crippling school costs.
Teachta Crowe\u2019s comments follow the publication of a report by St Vincent De Paul that details how some parents feel forced to take out loans or get help from charities to cover the costs.
Speaking today, Teachta Crowe said:
\u201cThis week\u2019s report from St Vincent De Paul makes for highly concerning reading. It is clear that families are under huge pressure from school costs. The price of uniforms, tablets and devices, books and transport can be crippling. On top of these, schools are asking families to pay hundreds of Euro in voluntary contributions as well.
\u201cParents\u2019 money cannot stretch that far and they are under real pressure. Every year I am contacted by families who are deeply anxious about these spiralling costs.
\u201cThis is particularly worrying this year as families are already struggling with a cost of living crisis.
\u201cIn 2021, my colleagues Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire TD and Matt Carthy TD introduced legislation that would prevent families being pressured to pay these costs. The government did not oppose the Bill, but have failed to act on it.
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in are also calling on the government to fund the education system properly, so that schools do not feel the need to fundraise to cover basic costs.
\u201cLet\u2019s be clear, the reason why schools feel put in this position is because of the government\u2019s failure to invest in schools. The government needs to ensure that schools have adequate funding, instead of expecting the buck to be passed on to parents when schools\u2019 funding falls short.
\u201cIt has been two years since Sinn F\u00e9in brought forward our legislation, but the government has sat on its hands. I am urging the government to end the delay and enact Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s legislation immediately. If not, they need to come forward with their own solutions.
\u201cFamilies in can’t be expected to keep waiting. They need help now.\u201d
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Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has urged the government to act urgently to protect families from crippling school costs. Teachta Crowe\u2019s comments follow the publication of a report by St Vincent De Paul that details how some parents feel forced to take out loans or get help from charities to cover […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5098,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions\/5098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}