Ms June Tinsley:

I want to contribute on a couple of points. Deputy O'Brien mentioned the start-up costs associated with school book rental schemes. My answer to him would be that there is a need for investment of the school book grant as the start-up fund. In my experience, because we set one up in my school, the principal was proactive in it and gave us the pot of money that he received as the school book grant to enable us to start it up. As Ms Lynch correctly states, between setting up those grants and getting the books back within the system, if that grant is reinvested over time it shifts the paradigm, from the parents funding the cost to the school providing the books. It is a system that operates in many countries and it should be operated here. The school book grant scheme is the vehicle to get us to that destination and we need that vision to get us there. There needs to be buy-in from all communities, including principals, patron bodies and parents, towards school book rental schemes so that there is no stigma attached to a school book rental scheme and it is available in all schools.

Correspondingly, in the case of school uniforms, there is a role for the Department of Education and Skills and patron bodies. It is not acceptable that such a hands-off approach of the school uniform being dictated by local boards of management. The Department and patron bodies have a role to play and we need to challenge that. At the end of the day, they could mandate that all schools pick one uniform item on which to have a crest.