Clare Senator Timmy Dooley has welcomed new of a €100 increase on the current back-to-school allowance rates.
The Fianna Fáil Senator said, “I’m delighted to see this significant €100 increase in the back-to-school allowance for each eligible child.
“The back-to-school allowance is an important payment to support parents and children as they prepare for their return to school. In addition to this, the school meals programme will also be expanded which will see a further 60’000 children covered under the programme.
“Importantly, Government has also decided to suspend school transport fees for one year to help support parents which will see a saving of up to €500 for families.
Government are cognisant of the pressures facing people and Fianna Fáil are committed to finding solutions to alleviate those cost of living pressures,” Senator Dooley added.
The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, administered by the Department of Social Protection is being increased by €100 for each eligible child under the scheme. Consequently, the amount being paid for each qualified child aged 4 – 11 years will be €260 and the rate payable for each eligible child aged 12 and over will be €385. It is estimated that some 151,000 families will benefit from this measure in respect of over 262,000 children. This is a one off measure for 2022 to assist families with back to school costs in the current year.
A further measure relates to the Department of Social Protection’s School Meals Programme. Currently, some 230,000 school-going children benefit from this programme. From today, an additional 310 schools, recently designated as DEIS schools in March are being invited to participate in this programme.
An additional €50 million in total will be made available to provide for these measures.
Free School Transport
This new announcement announcement also removes all costs of ticket for all categories of student, as below.
Prior to this announcement, the Government had, in February, announced a revised cost for school transport for the 2022/2023 school year, as set out below. Today’s announcement means that a family with more than one child using post primary school transport will benefit by €500.
The cost to the School Transport scheme of removing ticket charges fully is an estimated €17.5m.
