I move:
That leave be granted to introduce Bill entitled an Act to make provision whereby the Minister for Education shall make regulations governing the implementation of an affordable school uniform policy in schools; and for this purpose to amend the Education Act of 1998.
Bogaim an reachtaíocht seo a bhaineann le cultacha scoile inacmhainne. The purpose of this Bill is to tackle the costs relating to uniforms. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. We are seeing the lists come through the door for books, uniforms and voluntary contributions for many other costs. Sinn Féin has brought forward a package of proposals to tackle these costs, which we will discuss later. I welcome the fact that there seems to be some suggestion that the Government is considering this but it is vital that we ensure that middle-income families get support as well and that we tackle the fundamental reasons back-to-school costs have become so significant. Along with books, transport and voluntary contributions, one of those costs is the cost of uniforms. While many schools go to great lengths to ensure that school uniforms are as affordable as possible, others require multiple items that often can only be bought from one retailer, require particular crested uniforms or require multiples of them. If you have multiple children across different schools, it can cost hundreds of euro.
We are proposing to put in place legislation that is similar to what exists in other jurisdictions to ensure that while it is the prerogative of schools to have a uniform, such uniforms are as affordable as possible. This legislation would place an obligation on the Minister to require that schools have regard to developing affordable uniform policies, that such policies would be available publicly and easily understood, would state clearly whether each item on the uniform list is optional or required, would ensure that parents can source all elements of the uniform from a number of retailers, would have regard to school crests or badges that are iron-on and sew-on rather than ones that are integral to the uniform thus making it more expensive, would keep required usage of branded items to a minimum and consult with parents and a variety of other requirements to which schools must have regard. We believe this is but one of a suite of measures that are needed. We need to help parents in the here and now, particularly those on low incomes, but we also need some support for those on middle incomes. We also need to tackle the root causes of why going back to school is so expensive, including uniforms.
