Every July and August, families steel themselves for the cost of children going back to school, including uniforms, books, and shoes, and, as the Minister of State well knows, school transport. Now, for thousands of parents, there is another bill waiting on the kitchen table. It is one for hundreds of euro for a digital device. The latest research from the University of Limerick and the ESRI confirms what families and schools have been saying for months now that the Government's hands-off approach to digital education is widening inequality instead of closing it. I have heard directly from parents across County Waterford who simply cannot absorb another €600, €800 or €1,000 in expenses. When they go to their child’s school, they are often referred to the credit union or the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, both of whom, to be fair, are stepping up but that is not the way it should be. I have also spoken to principals who are told to stretch their ICT budgets, and, in fact, that is the response I got from the Minister of State’s colleague, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, when I queried this. Those budgets have been cut. They are threadbare. They are already covering administrative software networks, cyber security, classroom technology, and audiovisual equipment for schools. The truth is that the Government talks about equal opportunity but too often it delivers unequal access. It celebrates digital education while expecting parents to bankroll it. It tells schools to prepare children for the future but refuses to provide the resources needed to do so. That is not the leadership required here. It is simply passing responsibility on to families and calling it policy. A child's education should never depend on his or her parents' ability to buy a digital device, and no student should be disadvantaged because they cannot afford the device his or her school requires. If the Government is serious about reducing back-to-school costs and about equality and access, it must properly fund schools' digital infrastructure and stop expecting families to bridge the gap. Níor cheart go mbeadh todhchaí aon pháiste ag brath ar acmhainní airgid a theaghlach. Caithfidh an Rialtas infheistíocht cheart a dhéanamh inár scoileanna agus deireadh a chur leis an ualach atá á cur isteach ar thuismitheoirí.

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