Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Has there been engagement with the book manufacturers on this issue? As opposed to having a double set of textbooks as was mentioned, would they consider publishing a book in two parts? I was a post-primary teacher in a past life and I saw students carrying a big chunky textbook, part of which they might not use until they were halfway through second year but they would have carried it in their bags all through first year. Similarly, students in primary school might use part of a textbook in third class or fourth class but only certain sections of it would be used at certain times of the year. In the first half of the year, the first half of the book would be used and in the second half of the year, the second half of the book would be used. Have there been any discussions with the book manufacturers about manufacturing large textbooks in two or three parts? To alleviate the cost, the parent could buy the three parts of the textbook together and two parts of it could be stored in the student's locker for six or eight months and the student would only have to carry one part of the book in his or her bag.

As was mentioned by Deputy O'Sullivan, photocopying pages from a textbook is a good idea but it is difficult to organise for students to have that and it is even difficult to organise for adults to have a few pages of a document. I see that at committee meetings where there is a great deal of printed material. To try to do that for students is a whole different ball game. There is the matter of the additional workload that would put on teachers and there are also copyright issues around that. Has there been a discussion on that aspect? Has there been engagement not so much with the retailers but with the book publishers? There are procurement agreements in place with retailers and publishers. They know that in the context of school textbooks there will be return business every year. It is not as if there is high competition attrition.