Debate contribution: School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Pat Sheehan on 13 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Pat Sheehan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

13 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5175870

Read the official Assembly record

Text

From the very beginning, Sinn Féin approached the Bill in good faith, and, on that basis, we accepted a shorter Committee Stage. We engaged constructively, tabled amendments to make the legislation stronger, and took Department of Education officials at their word when they told us that the draft guidelines would be shared with us before the summer recess. We were told that, once we saw the guidelines, we would be assured that there was no need to amend the Bill, only to discover that the Minister never intended to give us sight of anything. The Minister then mocked that process in the Chamber. He laughed off the commitments that were made to Committee members by his senior officials. He laughed to himself as he confirmed that we were never going to see the guidelines, despite the promises of those senior officials. I do not believe that the officials had an axe to grind or had skin in the game; I believe that they were just following instructions. That is not good faith. This is serious lawmaking. It is disrespectful to the Assembly and the legislative process, but, more importantly, it is disrespectful to the hard-pressed families who were hoping for meaningful legislation that would give them a break from the spiralling cost of school uniforms. We do not have faith in the Minister's legislation because we do not believe that he is one bit serious about significantly cutting the cost of uniforms. For example, on a radio programme some weeks back, he did not even mildly criticise a school's practice of introducing a separate elite-tier uniform costing £180 to distinguish its high achievers. The Chair said that he does not know of any Minister who would want to bring forward legislation that is not effective. I sort of concur, but I believe that the intention of the Minister is to bring forward light-touch legislation. Families will not notice any significant difference next year or the year after. Families across the North are struggling. They wanted the Bill to deliver relief and fairness. Instead, it was a missed opportunity. The DUP Minister has produced a weak, light-touch piece of legislation that does little to bring prices down, nothing to protect parents from excessive branded demands, and nothing to promote equality or fairness for children and young people.

Yes.

I thank the Member for that. I am not sure that I agree that it is just a minority. School uniforms are one of the biggest costs for families throughout the year, especially families who have maybe two or three children going to post-primary school. We mentioned on a number of occasions the example of Craigavon Integrated College, which, in consultation with parents and students, recently designed a new school uniform. That will come in at £2 under the school uniform grant. That is the type of radical thinking that we need, and which we expected here, but we now know that we are not going to get it. When we are talking about reducing costs, that is what we are talking about. We are not talking about reducing something by a fiver. We want a significant reduction in costs for hard-pressed families and parents.

Working with others, Sinn Féin tabled sensible, practical proposals that would have done all that — not once, but twice — and they were blocked from even being debated. Let us recap on some of those proposals. One was limiting the number of branded or bespoke items that a school could require. Another was the right for girls to wear trousers if they want to, not at the whim of a principal. I agree with the Minister that there are schools that currently permit girls to wear trousers, but there are also schools that will not permit girls to wear trousers. Every one of us sitting here knows that. There are schools that will refuse girls the right to wear trousers, even during menstruation or when they are uncomfortable because of other issues. That is another opportunity that the Minister missed. There was also the issue of ensuring comfort and practicality of uniforms for our children and young people with additional needs. Some children become stressed or anxious because of the type of materials that uniforms are made of or because of the style of uniforms — for example, ties and shirts closed up to the neck. There is also the issue of supporting schools to facilitate more uniform banks and swap schemes. It is missed opportunity after missed opportunity. We will allow the legislation to pass today because families deserve something rather than nothing, but make no mistake: families deserve better than this. That is why, at Sinn Féin's request, the Education Committee has now agreed to begin exploratory work on a Committee Bill that will correct the Minister's homework, close the loopholes that he left wide open and deliver real affordability, fairness and equality for children and young people. We will not rest until that happens. Families have waited far too long for action, and Sinn Féin will make sure that they get it one way or another, regardless of how long it takes.

858 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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