Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here today. I know they have put great deal of work into their presentations. They want to put their message across. However, all the delegates are singing from the same hymn sheet as they have all the same ideas and have collaborated on suggestions. I found it very interesting that Fr. O'Connell is the only person who has mentioned e-books. I would be a great promoter of e-books as it would greatly reduce the weight of the schoolbags and this would alleviate the causes of back problems. I would say that nearly every house has a computer. For the homes which do not have a computer, they would use school books. I believe e-books are the way to go.

I am a parent and my children have gone through all levels, junior, secondary and third level. I know exactly what it costs. I know the pressures on families. I did not have a Senator's wages and got no grants. It was tough to have to put the children through school, but we got there and thankfully the result is worth it.

I was on the board of management of a school in County Kerry which had a book rental scheme. When there was a change in one chapter of a book, the relevant chapter was printed again and given to the school children as an addition to the book so that they did not have to buy a new book. That is an idea that could be looked at.

In the current climate savings must be made. While we would very much like to increase the capitation grant, we cannot do that and the country is not in a position to do it. There is a return to the days of fund-raising. I am on the board of management of a national school which is located beside where I live. They do bag packing in Dunnes Stores to fund-raise and make quite a bit of money from it. There is a great deal of community involvement. The parents come in and see it as a day out and do not see it as going out on the streets and looking for money. They are doing something and they are getting paid for a service. It is a good fund-raiser.

We can certainly take up the issue of the VAT rate . It is a very good suggestion to consider ways that we can exempt the schools from VAT.

On the question of uniforms, when we moved to the country there was no uniform in the school but my children continued to wear the uniform from their previous school. Today that school has a uniform and I think it saves money. The pupils made their confirmation in the school uniform. That saved a great deal of money. I believe that uniforms are the way to go.

The awarding of a green flag is a great initiative for schools. I hoisted the green flag recently where the school was awarded it for water conservation. The children gathered lemonade bottles and put them into the cisterns, they also changed the taps to ones that go off automatically. Everybody knows that young children will leave taps running.

An issue that was raised recently with the board of management of which I am a member is the transportation of children to football matches, swimming and so on. The parents were grouping together and taking turns in driving them. This is now a major issue and parents are being advised not to do this, which is putting an extra cost on everybody. Now the school has to organise a bus to transport the children. We need to consider ways of having the parents help out.