Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty has claimed that phone pouches budgeted to cost €9-million by the Department of Education in Budget 2025 will cost an additional €2-million each year.

The Sinn Fein Deputy Leader and financial spokesperson for the party Pearse Doherty said confidential documents released in a freedom of information request have stated that the Government knew 100,000 phone pouches would need to be bought each year, costing an addition €2-million each year.

On The Hard Shoulder earlier today, Deputy Doherty claimed that Minister Norma Foley telling the Dáil the €9-million budgeted for phone pouches in schools was a one off was “far from” the reality.

“The Department and the Minister were informed that there would have to be an extra €2 million spent every single year and that nearly 100,000 of these pouches would need to be replaced every year… and that the costs are actually more than what was being suggested from day one,” he said.

“I think that was a deliberate, in my view, attempt by the Government to suggest that it was 9 million.”

'She did not disclose it'

Deputy Doherty said the Government should not have claimed this was a “one off” payment.

“She [Norma Foley] made the point very clear in one of the radio interviews that she would only have this money once, and that this was money that would be committed once to buy these phones [pouches],” he said.

“Let's be clear - the documents that are released are saying 20% of all these phone pouches, nearly 100,000 of them, will have to be replaced every single year.

“She knew that, and she did not disclose it.”

Deputy Doherty also claimed that the Minister met with an executive of Yonder, the company providing these phone pouches, at a conference two years ago, where she was given one of the pouches.

“There's nothing wrong with people lobbying anybody - what is a problem, in my view, is when I put down a parliamentary question and ask a very clear question, ‘Did the Minister have any meeting with any executive from any company that produces these phone pouches?’ and she answers, ‘No’,” he said.

“I believe that that's evasive.

“Why did she not tell us that the executive from Yonder continued to send emails into her department over and over again within the period of the two years?”

'Waste of public money'

Deputy Doherty said he wants to know why the Minister for Education and Government “tried to downplay this”.

“It is a waste of public money,” he said.

“What also will madden people is that the officials within our department, also in preparation of documents showed that there were other options for schools to actually ensure that our classrooms were phone free, and both of those options cost nothing to the taxpayer.”

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Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty outside the Department of Finance, 25-09-2024. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews