Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Is it a noble aspiration that in time we move to a situation where, as happens in Northern Ireland, all schoolbooks will be free? If that is a noble aspiration and something to which we should be moving, how will we achieve and fund it? I ask the Department and the INTO for their views on this. I ask the question in the light of the fact that we are moving towards a more digitised education sphere. It is a noble aspiration towards which we should be working. This entire conversation is taking place in the wider context of back to school costs and the costs incurred by schools which are transferred to parents.

On energy costs, there are over 4,000 school buildings, many of which are not as populated as they used to be. Leadership is required from players in the education system to find a way to reduce energy costs. We are funding, heating and lighting a lot of schools, some of which should be amalgamated. It is difficult to justify the existence of some schools, but that is a very difficult conversation to have in many parts of rural and urban Ireland. I ask the INTO and the Department for their views on the issue.

Last year the committee completed a report on back to school costs and one of the recommendations included in it was from the parents councils - primary and post-primary - that a financial committee be part of the structure of schools, separate from the board of management. Such a committee would examine in detail the way money was being spent. Parents are involved in fund-raising and often contribute directly to schools, but they do not know where their money goes. If there was proper auditing or scrutiny of on what money was being spent, it might foster better energy awareness of the need to close windows, turn off radiators, lights, sockets and so forth when not needed. Do the Department and the INTO have a view on the recommendation that schools have a financial committee, either as a sub-committee of the board of management or separate from it, to enable proper scrutiny of how funds are spent in schools? If a school genuinely cannot pay its bills, despite being careful with money, the finger could point, reasonably, at the Department. Is it reasonable to suggest having a financial committee might enable schools to find solutions to some of their problems?