Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for coming in today and for the huge work that their organisations have done. By and large these are small organisations and they have done massive work before coming in to this committee and they have given us food for thought. I was particularly impressed by the surveys that were done and I think it is important for this committee to get that type of real information.

Senator Catherine Martin mentioned the circular from last year. I do not know what effect it has had. If any of the witnesses have experience of that, they could offer an input. I am certain no school has got the bonus that was announced. Has it had any effect on the ground, in particular with parents, at whom it was directed? I direct those questions to Ms Lynch and Mr. Browne, in particular.

The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, CPSMA, gave the figure of €46 million as the amount of contributions from parents funding its schools, so it is probably a little bit more in the primary sector overall. Is a similar figure available for second level in terms of what parents are putting into the school system?

I have met Ms Tinsley many times and she has fantastic ideas. Could she outline from where she got the figures for the free schoolbooks? I think there is a figure for the overall sale of schoolbooks in the country. In my experience, even with a schoolbook rental scheme, it still cost €50 a child, on top of the schoolbook rental in our school to buy books.

I ask the National Parents Council about school accounts and how money is spent. I am not disparaging any school. As I understand it, there is no obligation to put school accounts on a website. They must go to the patron, so the Joint Managerial Body, JMB, perhaps, could answer that. As far as I know, the law requires that they be open to inspection by parents but they are not generally available. That is something that I would like to see if the capitation is increased. To make a political point, the issue of capitation is a key issue in Fianna Fáil's budget priorities. I hope, if capitation is increased sufficiently, there would be a prohibition on non-voluntary contributions. The only way to make them voluntary is to anonymise them. Many parents will contribute, and that is great, but there will be no obligation and that is something I want to see happening.