With regard to the real value the economy, most schoolchildren have finished their studies for the summer and I hope they and their parents are enjoying the holiday break. For many parents this time of the year is one of worry and stress as they face the prospect of challenging costs associated with children returning to school in September. The report released by the Irish League of Credit Unions this morning highlights starkly this reality. The report finds it costs almost €1,000 a year to send a child to primary school and €1,500 for secondary school students. These are huge sums by any stretch of the imagination. This is bad enough, but picture the additional stress of many families with more than one child going back to school. The report also finds that more than 80% of parents feel the costs associated with sending their children to school are a significant financial burden. This is the value of the real economy and 80% is a lot of parents. Alarmingly, almost one third of parents find themselves in debt. They borrow an average of €357. This debt multiplies for those with more than one child going back to school. Some are turning to unscrupulous moneylenders and other short-term high-cost borrowing sources to put the money together to provide for their children.

This is totally unacceptable, particularly when one takes into account the wider cost of living crisis, which is crippling families, and rising rents, mortgages, insurance costs, property tax and child care. This State is supposed to have free education in order to ensure that all citizens enjoy a decent opportunity in life. That is clearly not the case. Parents and children alike deserve better. More than one in ten parents are forced, we are told, to cut food bills in order to cover back-to-school costs. What has the Taoiseach done about this? He has made it worse. He has cut the back-to-school allowance by half since 2011. However, it is not too late. The Taoiseach could take some positive measures now and the State can afford them. He could increase funding to the school books grant scheme by 30%. He could increase funding to the school meals programme by 40%. He could increase the capitation grant to primary and post-primary schools. However, the biggest measure he could bring in is an increase in the annual back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance by €50. We costed this in our alternative budget for 2016. The total cost is €50 million for all these measures and €15 million in respect of the back-to-school allowance. That is clearly affordable. Why does the Taoiseach not send a clear message to the 80% of parents who need help with the cost of sending their children back to school? I ask the Taoiseach to agree to very modest propositions.

For a great number of parents the school year begins when the summer holidays begins because the implications of the costs of returning to school begin to exert pressure at that point. Child benefit has increased and access to free GP care for younger children is a saving to parents. We strongly support any measures that can be taken to reduce uniform costs for parents, including measures such as generic uniforms or those onto which the crest can be sewn. The Minister for Education is looking to introduce a stronger complaints procedure and a charter for parents. It is very necessary that during the course of the school year the school management and school authorities discuss with parents the projections for the following year. Where costs can be reduced, there is a saving all round.

Regarding textbook costs, an agreement was reached with the Irish Educational Publishers Association a number of years ago by the former Minister, Ruarí Quinn, which resulted in the agreement of a code of practice in this area. That code commits the publishers to limit the publication of new editions and to maintain editions of books in print unchanged for at least six years so that there is a clear follow-through. The publishers have also given clear assurances that they will sell textbooks to schools at discounts so that schools can purchase textbooks in bulk to stock book rental schemes, which are an important way of reducing costs for students as well. Book rental schemes are clearly the most effective method of reducing the cost of school books for parents across the country.

Since 2011, school book grants have been protected. There has also been an increase in the investment to ensure that all primary schools can offer book rental schemes. There was €6.7 million spent in 2014 to give seed capital to 400 schools in the primary sector that do not have book rental schemes so that they could establish them, and in 2015 and this year we have been increasing that investment to give additional support to other schools which already had book rental schemes established before that point to allow them to expand their schemes. There has been a €15.6 million investment specifically on expanding book rental schemes in primary schools over these three years, and that is on top of the €15 million that was spent on book grants for all schools which can be used for the maintenance and upkeep of the book rental stock. Returns for September 2015 indicate that 94% of primary schools and 65% of post-primary schools operate a book rental scheme.

Finally, the Minister published last week the schools admission Bill, which prohibits the charging of fees or seeking of payment or contribution as part of the school admission process or for continued enrolment in the school, which is a further saving, recognising that this was an imposition on parents.

I do not know. The Taoiseach took two and a half minutes to say "no" without mentioning the word "no". I proposed very modest measures which would cost the State €65 million in taxpayers' money. This money does not belong to the Taoiseach, Fine Gael or the Independents. I presume the Taoiseach will not act on my proposals. The back-to-school allowance does not cover the cost of getting children back to school. Although the Taoiseach said he had increased child benefit, this is after he cut it. He has reinstated some of it.

This year, we celebrated the centenary of the 1916 Proclamation. It is done and dusted. The Proclamation was taken out, patriotic rhetoric was stated at commemorations, and now the Proclamation has been put away again for another 100 years. The Government gave free copies of the Proclamation to schools, schools which include children living in deprivation. UNICEF has shown that one third of Irish children suffer from material deprivation in households that cannot afford essential items. These reports tell us what we know if we run clinics in our constituencies and if we are connected with and embedded in our communities. The Taoiseach, in his non-answer, has chosen to ignore this crisis. We have offered constructive measures which would ease this. The €65 million would go a long way to relieving distress on families. Again, I ask the Taoiseach to just say "yes" and to increase the allowance, even by way of a supplementary payment to parents in the coming months.

The Deputy is perfectly entitled to propose costed views for this or any other sector. I have pointed out some of the ways benefits have been increased for parents of young children through GP access, child benefit and the restriction on charging of fees under the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill. There are 18,700 applications for back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and there is a dedicated unit in the Department of Social Protection dealing with the area.

The Deputy has put forward a point of view. The way the system has changed within the House with the new regulations means the Committee on Education and Skills will have an opportunity to give its opinions on the presentation of the budget for 2017. Everybody can support a reduction in costs for children, particularly regarding uniforms, generic uniforms and school schemes for rental and loans. The Deputy's point on the €50 million can be considered in the context of the preparation of the 2017 budget.

Arising from Deputy Micheál Martin's earlier question, people might have an inflated view of how much the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform would have as a consequence of yesterday's CSO figures. His opportunity to raise expectations is not there. Growth will be limited to a very reasonable amount and the Minister is still restricted.