Ms Áine Lynch:

I will not read through the report because I am aware members have copies of it. I will refer to some of the key points in it. We very much welcome the section on culture change. We need a culture change within schools because for many years we have campaigned about the fact that the relationship with parents in schools is often a financial one, whether it is back-to-school costs, with parents' associations effectively being fund-raising committees. We very much support what the report says around culture. I suppose the parents' charter will be the initial vehicle which will bring about some of that culture change and how the education system engages in dialogue with parents around their children's learning. We cannot see any progression on that at the moment but we very much hope the parents' charter will be the vehicle that will do that. We look forward to being engaged in the development of that charter.

In terms of the voluntary contributions, we call for them to be completely prohibited. When we surveyed parents on voluntary contributions, we found that 65% of the parents who responded to us were asked for voluntary contributions but 35% were not asked. We believe in those situations where schools are not asking for voluntary contributions, more work needs to be done on how they are managing their finances and what is happening in those schools in order that we can get a better picture of why those schools are not asking their parents for voluntary contributions. We think that could lead to some insight into what other schools could put in place to avoid them.

We were pleased the committee took up the National Parents Council's recommendation to establish finance committees in schools. The role of the finance committee would be very different from boards of management in schools or parents' associations, but at the moment, the parents' association seems to be the main additional funding body within a school, so if additional funding is needed, it usually finishes up with dialogue between the parents' association, the principal and the board of management. We would like separate finance committees to be established in schools which would represent all members of the school community. It would mean, therefore, the parents' association would not be seen as a fund-raising committee but as having a very important job in the school in terms of a peer support group to other parents in supporting their children's learning.

We very much welcome the budget announcement of an additional €5 million towards schoolbooks. We would like to see how that will fit into the suggestion of the five year template for the delivery of an entirely free book scheme. While we very much welcome that initial commitment, the recommendation from the committee of an entirely free book system is something towards which we should work with that €5 million rather than just inputting a sum of money and in a few years' time looking back and wondering where it went. There needs to be a structure in terms of how that delivers what we all want.

In terms of curricular and extra-curricular activities, I hear a number of people say there should be no charge for curricular activities during the day and yet we know they are being charged for. One of the main ones is swimming. There are few situations where a child attends swimming and is not charged for it. There are many other instances during the school day where parents are asked for contributions towards curriculum areas. It is very clear from the Department that this is not allowed but what are parents to do when they are put in a situation where they are being asked for this money and, if it is not provided, the curriculum activity cannot be provided to their child or to other children in the school?

In regard to uniform costs, we very much welcome the announcement this week by the Minister and the fact all parents in the school will have an opportunity to engage in a ballot system. Some parents are more vocal than others, so not every parent's view is heard when parents are being consulted on an issue. Therefore, the aspect of this where there will be a ballot of all parents is very welcome.