Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the welcome announcement made this morning by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, that €15 million would be made available for the school book rental scheme capital fund available to all primary schools. I have been a strong supporter of cutting school costs for parents. In my role as a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, I have advocated this position at our meetings and also with the Minister. The €15 million was originally to be allocated to primary schools that did not have in place a book rental scheme, but following lobbying by me, as I had received representations from many schools which had initiated their own book rental schemes, the fund will now be made available to all primary schools, which is something to be welcomed in these economic times. The roll-out of this allocation will give recognition to the hard work done by schools with book rental schemes. By aiding the schools with book rental schemes and helping others to create new ones, we will ease the back to school cost burden on many parents and provide much needed assistance for schools through this worthwhile endeavour. I am delighted that 13 primary schools in my constituency have been allocated a total of almost €300,000 to support the setting up of book rental schemes. This is another good effort by the Government to reduce the cost of education for parents.