Mr. Peter Mullan:

I reiterate what Mr. McMahon stated. We welcome any funding provided for schools, but in this instance the additional funding does not mitigate the sense of unfairness felt in schools regarding the structure of the scheme. It will not quell the demand among principal teachers in particular to go back to the drawing board to try to devise a fairer scheme to provide free books. In some cases the actual cost of books amounts to one third to one half of all costs of so-called "book bills". Arts and crafts and PE are required subjects in primary schools but there is no funding for them. ICT has not been funded in schools for several years and, as was pointed out, the cost of one bulb in a classroom can be substantial. There is no equipment grant for an infant classroom. We need to factor all of these into an overall examination of primary schools funded on the basis of less than €1 per pupil per day for every day they are in operation. We should record the great work done by principal teachers to keep schools open on this level of funding.