The Minister for Education's announced new measures to reduce the cost of going to school.

Under the plans schools will be obliged to place greater emphasis on reducing the financial burden placed on parents.

They include banning the use of workbooks which cannot be reused and using generic uniforms.

Back to school costs in 2016 were almost €1000 for parents of kids going to primary school and almost €1,500 for parents of secondary school kids.

However Barnardos' Fergus Finlay says the measures don't go far enough: