Almost all of €47million back to school fund spent

Nearly €43m of the €47.4m budget for back-to-school payments for families has been spent by the Department of Social Protection.

An extra €10m was added to the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme’s 2017 allocation by Leo Varadkar in the days before he vacated the department to become Taoiseach in June.

This has facilitated a 25% increase in the amounts paid to children of school-going ages, with €125 provided for those aged up to 11 and €250 in respect of those over 12.