Out of the blue, President Nikos Christodoulides announced on Tuesday that the government would be giving €9.5m in handouts to schoolchildren. The package, he said, was aimed at helping pre-primary, primary and gymnasium students – some 45,000 would benefit – and offering some relief to family budgets as part of the measures to deal with high prices.

Needless to say that the cash handouts for all – the government proudly announced there would be no income criteria – were announced by the president himself in a video-taped message, because he enjoys being the messenger of good news. His spokesman, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, subsequently explained who would be eligible to the cash handouts, which included €400 towards the purchase of a laptop for all children in the second grade of the gymnasium and €200 towards the purchase of a tablet for children in the third grade of primary school – at a total cost of €5m.

The government, which has also used the slogan ‘At every start, together’ for its largesse with the taxpayer’s money, will also give €100 for the purchase of school supplies to every student in the first grade of primary, gymnasium, lyceum and technical school, totaling €2.6m. The beneficiaries would be 26,000 children whereas those eligible for the laptop or tablet subsidy will total 17,000.

Perhaps there is something we have missed here, but by what logic will the state be offering well-off families money they do not need towards buying their children a laptop or a tablet? Would not the sensible thing have been for the money to be given to families in genuine need of state support instead of to everyone? With income criteria, the total spend would have been a third of what it is and perfectly justified. In fact, the only expenditure that could be justified was the subsidy of the school bus fares, considering buses are mainly used by children from less well-off families.

But splashing out money on buying laptops and tablets for students and subsidising the cost of school supplies for each child is irresponsible state spending – a blatant waste of public money. Letymbiotis unintentionally admitted this in defending the expenditure, without anything resembling a rational argument.

“Every new start opens the door to hope and new opportunities, especially when it comes to the future of children and the start of the new school year. The new school year starts with the government by the side of students, supporting the youth of today, a more hopeful tomorrow is secured for everyone.”  When the government resorts to such utter nonsense to justify an expenditure decision we should start to worry.

Given the thoughtless way in which the government is spending the taxpayer’s money the “more hopeful tomorrow for everyone” that Letymbiotis spoke about sounds like a bit of a joke.