Mr. Matt Ryan:

I will make a general comment first and then try to deal with some of the specific questions raised. The Minister published a discussion document a number of years ago on the cost of schoolbooks and whether book rental or other schemes should be implemented to meet the costs. Wide-ranging consultation was held with various partners in education, national parent councils, both primary and post-primary, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Barnardos. Following the consultation, the Minister published a report and sought feedback from the various educational partners. Following all that effort, he decided not to change the current book grant schemes. People were saying he should make book rental schemes compulsory, but he does not have the legal power to do so. Therefore, the only penalty he could impose would be to withdraw grants from schools that did not operate book rental schemes. This would bring its own issues, so he decided not to go down that route.

The Minister and Department have published guidelines for book rental schemes. These guidelines, which were a result of consultation, give examples of good practice on how to establish and fund these schemes on an ongoing basis through the contributions of parents and the use of the grants that schools get from the Department. This documentation is available. Special guidelines were published also in regard to parents and how they might assist boards of management and principals in establishing book rental schemes. I make these general comments to provide some of the background on this issue.

I will now deal with some of the more specific questions. The scheme announced in the budget last October was targeted specifically at primary schools that did not operate book rental schemes.

At the time the scheme was announced we could have taken the route of writing to all 3,200 primary schools, explaining the scheme and asking them whether they wished to participate. However, we realised that we already had some information coming into the Department by means of the October returns. Each school was asked to indicate whether it has a book rental scheme. I accept some of the criticism that has been made at the committee today to the effect that this was a rather naive question or did not go deep enough. It was the question asked and that was the information we had. As I noted in my submission, those returns showed that 84% of primary schools are currently operating a book rental scheme in some form or other.
We took that essential information, wrote to the schools involved and invited them to participate. There is a gap between the numbers that do not have book rental schemes and the number that have applied. We contacted the schools that did not apply. In the main they were special schools. Most of the 100-odd schools that did not apply for the seed grant were specialist schools. Essentially, they said they do not operate books in the normal sense of the word and, therefore, they took the view that the scheme was not for them. With the 400 schools now getting grant assistance it should mean that the vast majority of primary schools in future will have book rental schemes in place.
The issue of the e-books was raised by Senator Power. I am afraid I do not have specific knowledge in that area. It is a matter for our information and communications technology policy unit. However, I understand the issue around VAT. I understand that is of course a matter for the Minister for Finance in terms of ministerial responsibility. I believe the Minister has made soundings but thus far has not been successful in having the issue addressed.
Deputy O'Brien asked about the decision to provide book grants to schools. That was a budgetary decision. Once we had all the applications in, we found that we could give the grants, amounting to €150 for DEIS programme schools per child and €100 for non-DEIS programme schools, and that it would cost €6.7 million. The Minister agreed to listen to the complaints and legitimate concerns raised by public representatives and schools about how the grant scheme was operating. The balance of the funding in the amount of €8.3 million, which has been set aside over three years, will now be directed towards those schools that currently operate book rental schemes. The submission I sent to the committee details how that funding will be issued in 2015 and 2016. All schools will get some of that funding. In fact, the majority of the funding will go to schools that currently operate book rental schemes. Funding of €5 million has already issued this year to the schools that do not operate book rental schemes. That funding issued in April and the balance will issue next year, approximately €1.3 million. The funding has already gone out.
Deputy O'Brien raised a query about the code of practice. We do not have specific information in terms of schools that might have received discounts for buying or purchase. I am unable to say how many schools availed of the offer from the book publishers. I am afraid we simply do not have the information.
Deputy Daly raised the issue about the definition of the book rental scheme. We do not have a definition whereby we can say that a given scheme is a book rental scheme while another is not. As the president of the INTO outlined in his submission, it can vary from a number of books on a particular subject to the full range of textbooks. For example, infant classes, generally speaking, do not have textbooks or at least not many. Therefore, it is difficult to have a definition that we can use across the board. I will explain the position for post-primary schools. Next year, when we ask the question in the October returns, we will ask the schools whether they have a book rental scheme. If they reply in the affirmative we will ask them to clarify whether it applies at junior cycle only, senior cycle only or both cycles. We are attempting to refine the information we get back from schools in terms of the type of book rental schemes they operate.
I have already explained the differential in the returns between the 100 or so schools that have not taken it up. I acknowledge on the Department's behalf that there was a lack of engagement with some of the education partners around how this scheme would operate. In hindsight, we probably would do it differently. We would certainly acknowledge that.
Reference was made to the issue of boards taking responsibility for book rental schemes. The guidelines that I referred to earlier, published last year, put the onus on the board of management, as the school authority, to take ultimate responsibility. However I acknowledge that de factoit is the principal teacher and the staff of the schools who operate the schemes.
Reference was made to having a general scheme whereby all books are free. Probably in an ideal world one would be moving towards that, but it would be difficult at this stage to ascertain the cost of it. We know that the overall book rental business, between first and second level, is worth approximately €60 million per annum. That might give the committee some idea of the cost of having a scheme that operates across first and second level whereby books are free for everyone. Those are the issues. If I have missed anything I can come back in.