Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the witnesses. I do not want to repeat what others have said but what has come up falls into two categories. Senator Ruane has argued passionately about what schools themselves can do. I was particularly struck by Ms Lynch's point that the relationship between a family and a school should not be financial; it should be educational. When parents think of school, they should be able to think of the educational and social development of their child and it should be a positive idea in their heads rather than the financial pressure that Senator Ruane, and the witnesses in their presentations, have so eloquently described. On the one hand there is that category of things that schools can do, and I will return to that momentarily, but I hope the witnesses involved directly with schools will take back the points made by Senator Ruane.

This committee needs to make recommendations about what the State and the Government can do. I support the restoration of the capitation grant to the level that it was at pre-2010 when it was cut. I think the State can afford to do that now. It is in a much better financial situation than it was in 2010. These are the kinds of things that can be done now. Barnardos, in particular, has argued for the constitutional right to free education to actually be free education. Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Labour Party spokesperson on education, has passionately argued for that and pre-budget proposals in that regard will be forthcoming.

One thing that has featured across the various presentations and the views of the members of the committee relates to capitation and free books. I would like the figures to be as accurate as possible. A figure of €20 million for the cost of books at primary level seems to be agreed, but I do not know what the figure is for post-primary. Do any of the witnesses have a more accurate figure. Is it €20 million as well? I thought it was a bit more in post-primary. That is not a huge amount of money in the context of budgetary arithmetic. I know demographics are still putting pressure on the Department of Education and Skills at post-primary level but, at primary level, they are beginning to ease off. Making primary education free can now be achieved and that is something that the committee needs to put into its report. Can any of the witnesses clarify the figures in relation to the post-primary sector, because I am not clear from the data I have?

I wanted to follow up on what Deputy Catherine Martin said about children in direct provision and homeless children. The number of homeless children now stands at 3,867. I imagine that the majority of these children are going to school. There will be some preschool children in that group but I imagine the majority go to school. Obviously, it is much more difficult for the parents of these children to get things more cheaply. In some cases, they might even have had to change uniform if they have had to change schools. Does anyone have any direct experience of that? We need to put something in place that will give extra support to the children of people in direct provision and homeless children.

Regarding ending voluntary contributions, we need to find out the costs of necessities as opposed to what might be considered added extras. Transition year must be treated as a necessity if all children are to be able to participate in it. The idea that so-called voluntary contributions are going towards necessities that the State can afford needs to be addressed in our recommendations.

I return to the things schools can do. Funding has been allocated to allow schools to set up book rental schemes. In my experience, by and large, schools where parents have less income are very good at setting up book rental schemes. Perhaps I am wrong but it seems that they are the schools that make the effort to set up book rental schemes because they know that parents require them. There are schools that do not have book rental schemes where the majority of parents might be able to afford it but where there will always be families who cannot afford it. I would like to ask the managerial bodies in particular why all schools do not have book rental schemes.

The workbook issue has been raised so I do not think there is anything more I can add except to say it is no longer logical to have workbooks. These are a significant extra cost because, obviously, they cannot be passed on to other children. Uniforms constitute another issue. The point has been made so forcefully about crests that I do not need to add to it except to support the argument. It is possible to get generic school uniforms relatively cheaply whereas the ones with crests are much more expensive. I wanted to separate that issue into two categories.

It was important that the things schools can do were raised here today. I ask the various people dealing directly with schools to bring those back to their respective organisations. The Department could probably do more in terms of being more definite about some of these things rather than leaving it up to the schools, although I know there are restrictions in terms of what the Department can force schools to do. When we produce our report, we need to focus on what the State can and should do now that funding is available.