Families are being desperately squeezed by the cost-of-living crisis, especially the back-to-school costs that so many are facing. We saw a credit union survey this morning showing the cost per child being between €1,100 and €1,500. I spoke with a mother this morning who is budgeting for the school term ahead. She tells me that the cost of sending her two children to school this September has risen by €1,500 compared with this time last year. This is an enormous increase for any family. Amid rising costs of food, fuel, transport, childcare and housing, this price increase will have serious implications and ramifications for her household budget and the budgets of many households across the country. The credit unions told us that about one third of families go into debt to pay the cost of being back to school. The mother I spoke with joked that between the cost of returning to school and other rising costs, her credit union's loans department will be on speed dial for the rest of this year.

There were welcome concessions from the Government on back-to-school costs last night but they are simply not enough. There was no radical move to introduce the free school books scheme that my colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, proposed. It would cost €40 million but would make a significant difference to many families. There was no move to increase eligibility for the back-to-school allowance, which could be done with the stroke of a pen and would make a real difference. There was no move for real reform of the outdated school transport system either. We need a bigger vision with more substantive change. We have called for a real cost-of-living budget, not one which will introduce mere piecemeal reform. We welcome the date being brought forward, but as my colleague, Deputy Nash, said, it is really a token exercise, because it has only been brought forward by two weeks. We have called for more targeted measures to be introduced now to ensure that families and households have excellent supports as they go through that critical time when children go back to school. Instead, we see suggestions that the Government will introduce vote-winning tax cuts at the expense of real cost-of-living measures to support hard-pressed families and households.

Will the Minister avoid skirting round the edges and make real, substantive changes in the budget, based on a practical way of improving conditions for many families and households? We know the cost-of-living crisis is not an abstract concept. It is felt by households across the country, including households which had incomes which, this time last year, were sufficient and adequate to meet their household expenses and bills, yet they are now facing a desperate situation where they simply cannot afford and are dreading going back to school.

I would make the case that providing a free hot meal to a child in a DEIS school is real change. This Government has expanded the DEIS programme by the single largest amount ever, to include more than 300 schools. It is the right thing to do. Deputies have all issued press releases with the details of what schools in their constituencies were given DEIS band 1 and band 2 status in recent months, because they know the value of it and the benefits afforded to schools by being given DEIS status. They are given DEIS status because it is warranted. They accommodate children from communities which, in many instances, are disadvantaged, suffer from social deprivation and need extra help. This Government expanded the number of pupils in our school system who will get a free hot meal every day by 60,000. It is an important intervention that represents real change and makes a real difference to the lives of children and parents. We make the case that that is a radical intervention by the Government.

Similarly, school transport is provided for free to those who qualify. All ticket holders availing of the school transport scheme will not face any charge for the 2022-23 school year. In rural Ireland in particular, in the absence of a school transport scheme, parents could face a long commute when fuel costs are high to get their children to and from school. This measure will make a real difference for many families, providing up to €500. It can be spread between two payments, in July and November, but many parents try to pay it in July to get it done. They will not have to do so now.

We are changing the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. We acknowledge that it will not go far enough for many, but it is a genuine effort by the Government to help and to make a difference. It comes on the back of all the other initiatives that we have taken since the last budget to address the cost-of-living crisis, which is not a crisis for everyone, but for many. We have been advised time and again that when we make interventions, they should be targeted at those who need it the most. I do not think anyone can argue that those who qualify for the back-to-school allowance are not those who need it the most. We are giving them extra help. In the budget, we expanded the eligibility criteria, especially for single parents, who will now have the same income test as a couple who are applying for the back-to-school allowance.

We welcome any targeted interventions that will improve conditions and the situation for struggling families and households but it is simply not enough. There are families and households that had sufficient income last year who now require better, more urgent State intervention to support. As we see in Northern Ireland, the free school books scheme could make a real difference, as could reforms to the school transport system, which has many discrepancies.

We in the Labour Party have been standing in solidarity with the most hard-pressed, including section 39 workers and members of the Irish Wheelchair Association and its staff, who have not seen a pay rise in 14 years. This group needs additional supports to deal with the cost-of-living crisis and they need a pay rise. Ireland needs a pay rise generally. People need more money in their pockets at the end of the week in order that they can meet rising costs for many basic commodities, including housing. Will the Minister engage with section 39 organisations to ensure that their staff get a pay rise?

Many of them have been doing much front-line work through the pandemic and continue to do so now but yet, they simply are not earning enough to meet the rising costs we are seeing as we come into the back-to-school season.

For any family looking at costs it feels it cannot meet and that currently is above the income eligibility criteria for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, it should reach out for help to the Department of Social Protection. There is an additional needs payment available there and the cost of returning the child back to school is a qualifying cost. As the Deputy is aware, we have made changes to the eligibility criteria for that additional needs payment. People who are working full time can now qualify. Of course the Department will examine every individual case and this is what we would expect the Department to do. The Department has received a clear signal from the Government that these cases are to be looked at sympathetically, recognising the fact that people are facing extra costs at this time.

The Deputy also raised the issue of the industrial relations dispute. The workers concerned are not directly employed as public service employees, which I believe the Deputy understands and acknowledges. The State provides funding to the Irish Wheelchair Association, and many other section 39 organisations. It is for the employer and the workers to engage and use the industrial relations machinery that is there at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to come to an acceptable agreement on pay. There have been increases in funding from the State to all of these bodies in recent years. It is a matter for the bodies themselves to manage that budget and to make pay arrangements with the workers concerned.