Mr. Ferdia Kelly:

I support all the points that have been made by Fr. Connell. I must express some dismay at Deputy Ó Ríordáin's comments about our submissions to this body. We have always treated it with the utmost respect. I am looking at the submission on this topic that we made here on 10 October 2012. We pointed out the reality of the financial situation in our schools. We mentioned that between 30% and 33% of everything that is spent in voluntary secondary schools is raised locally. That is done out of necessity rather than out of desire. We also commended the return of the summer works scheme, the efforts of the National Procurement Service in saving money and the Minister's agreement with the book publishers on a code of practice, with specific reference to the five-year moratorium on changing books. We acknowledged the publication of the draft guidelines on book rental schemes. We pointed to the value and benefits of information technology as a learning tool. We called for the abolition of the 23% VAT rate. We raised an issue with regard to licences. On the issue of uniforms, we acknowledged in our submission that "the cost of uniforms must be kept to a minimum and this can be achieved at local school level through a process of consultation on issues such as the style and content of the uniform [and] best value in sourcing the uniform". We spoke about the key value of management, teachers and, most particularly, parents working together in the local school community to ensure the best possible education and, as Mr. Loftus has said, the best possible use of the resources. That is a quick summary of our submission. I am dismayed that Deputy Ó Ríordáin has suggested that we were negative in tone or adopted an approach that was not appropriate in some way. In our response to last July's publication of the report on tackling back-to-school costs, we did not intend to set out to be sarcastic - we intended to portray the reality.