Asking parents to pay €850 for digital devices is “unconscionable” says O’Reilly

Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly has said it is “unconscionable” to ask parents to pay up to €850 for digital devices for school children.

The Dublin Fingal West TD said having to pay for digital devices goes against the spirit of public education and called for a digital device allowance to be included in Budget 2027.

The Sinn Féin social protection spokesperson was responding to the Barnardos’ 2026 Back to School survey, in which 57% of secondary parents reported having to pay for devices at an average of €447 each, with parents reporting having to pay up to €850 for a tablet.

O’Reilly said, “this phenomenon of forcing parents – who sent their kids to public schools, often DEIS and DEIS+ schools –  to pay anywhere between €500 and €850 on top of the usual back-to-school costs goes against the spirit of public education.”

“As I said in the Dáil recently, parents want their children to be able to participate. The Minister for Education claims she wrote a letter stating that devices are not mandatory in schools. Materially, this has not improved or changed anything.”

She said “there is still enormous pressure on parents to come up with this money so as their children are not left behind or excluded. Social Justice Ireland, Barnardos, the ESRI and more have reported consistently that households with children, particularly lone parent households and households with a disabled member, are struggling to provide adequate food and keep up with energy costs.”

The Northside TD said “parents are being compelled to pay, oftentimes premium prices, for specific brands from specific suppliers. These suppliers are offering predatory ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ schemes at a time when over half a million households in Ireland already find themselves in energy arrears.”

“The reality is, these devices are not at all guaranteed to last for six years of secondary education, many many parents are going to have to make this purchase twice, spending thousands on devices alone, and that is per child. Parents with multiple children in school at once are being crippled.

“Free education means no prohibitive costs. We need to see a digital device allowance in Budget 2027, parents cannot go on like this,” O’Reilly said.