Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will request an additional minute now as well. The Minister will be aware that it is an issue that is quite important to me in my area.

In terms of the items in the Minister's opening statement around the senior cycle reform, what does she see for this September? There were a number of initiatives that the Minister took last September.

On the elements here tackling bullying, the Minister mentioned she will be looking at the expert report that is coming in, but also the recommendations of our own committee's report on tackling bullying.

On the number of teachers that have been allocated, it is fantastic to see the reduction of the teacher-pupil ratio at national level.

I also welcome the €20 million fund for the school libraries. On the school books, the Minister mentioned 540,000 students. I wanted to ask whether that is the total number of students at primary school level. It is merely to clarify that is all the students who are receiving that.

I refer to some of the questions that we had here in relation to the State Examinations Commission. It was around the leaving certificate reform, where students would be sitting paper 1 in English at the end of fifth year. There was a little concern around that. The committee here has a recommendation about undertaking some of those assignments across both fifth year and leaving certificate year.

The final question here is in relation to the digital library service. Is it possible for additional schools to join this service or is it at maximum capacity? It would be good to have the Minister's comments on that, if possible.