Ms Áine Lynch:

I have, and I will do my best to answer them. We conducted a survey on voluntary contributions over a two week period at the beginning of this year and received responses from 900 parents. The first important point to emerge from the survey was that 35% of schools did not ask for voluntary contributions. This gives rise to the question as to what happens in those schools. Another point that arose was that a significant number of parents felt they were put under pressure to pay the voluntary contribution and that they did not feel it was voluntary.

There is a direction from the Department on the issue of voluntary contributions, but it is a bit like the curriculum issue where although the direction says one thing, when something else happens, there appears to be no sanction. What happens to make a change? Currently, there is no real direction. People contact us sometimes and we refer them to back to the school, pointing out that insisting on a contribution is unacceptable in the context of the Department's direction. If the school does not respond to that, there is little parents can do within the school, even at a collective parent association level.

We must acknowledge that parents have children in the school and they will only go so far to cause friction because they must leave their child in that school every day. They might raise an issue collectively or individually, but they will only go so far with it. This happens with many issues brought to us. People come to us, particularly when they have received a first, second and third letter asking for the voluntary contribution.

Sometimes the colour of the writing in the letter changes. Sometimes the child is given the letter in school and it is quite clear how the letters have been allocated. It becomes increasingly difficult for the parent to engage with the school around education. A parent might receive three reminder letters about not paying a voluntary contribution. For a parent who might not have been able to pay for the swimming and whose child might be wearing half of the uniform, the dynamic is very different at the parent teacher meeting in October, if the parent goes at all. We raised this issue at the first meeting here. We do not believe schools set out to cause difficulties for parents, but because of the current financial situation the nature of the dialogue creates difficulty. We are trying to create solutions without additional funding, although the solution is additional funding. There is tension in the school system because schools feel they are not adequately funded. That is not a tension with the Department but it is a Government issue. There is a tension between schools and parents about getting that additional funding from somewhere.

We suggest setting up a finance committee that would change the dynamic from a very individual dialogue between a parent group and a school group to a more collective discussion. This issue will not go away because, although 35% of schools may not be asking for voluntary contributions, we have anecdotal information that fund-raising has increased in those schools. That becomes a collective responsibility because individual families are not asked directly but it is still a huge pressure and parents tell us they will not join parents' associations because they know that if they do they will be asked to raise money and they do not feel comfortable doing that. As a national parents' association - I know our colleagues in the post-primary area are doing the same thing - we are trying to promote parents' associations as bodies that support children's learning and engagement with the school, as the joint managerial body, JMB, said. If parents will not go near them because they feel they are fund-raising bodies that works directly against that mission, which research has shown is very important.

In response to the question about competition between schools and appealing to parents with an iPad or extracurricular activities, when parents decide where to send their children to school they will look for the obvious differences between schools. They will decide on the basis of distinctions such as iPads or extracurricular activities. We hope schools would make distinctions based on transparency and openness, on working with parents and supporting children's learning so that parents would decide on that basis, rather than on whether the school uses iPads. If schools use that form of dialogue, parents may engage at a different level rather than saying an iPad or an extracurricular activity makes the difference. There is work to be done to educate both sides about the types of things that would differentiate between schools.

In response to the question about swimming lessons and how many lives they have saved, we would never say the extracurricular activities for which there is a charge are not useful. We regard swimming as very useful and we have supported its inclusion in the curriculum. There is no curriculum activity that should be charged for during the school day, regardless of its use. If it is part of the curriculum, it must be provided as such. Just as schools would not charge for the core curriculum subjects, they should not charge for music or swimming or any of the other curriculum subjects that are required.

I think the Department clarified the point about the schoolbook rental scheme and the €5 million per year. The €5 million a year over three years will provide seed capital for the establishment of book rental schemes. That is very different from having a free book scheme. I am concerned that €15 million over three years is a large sum of money to put into schoolbooks. Where will they go? Schoolbook rental schemes can be very different beasts in different schools, depending the number of parents involved, how many books they cover and how many are included. We welcomed the recommendation for free schoolbooks, and believe this should be part of the framework working towards free books. We would like that €15 million to be put into that framework in order that it will happen in five years' time rather than turn around then and say, "Oh but we have book rental schemes". We are not in any way down-playing the huge investment, we would just like to see how the framework continues to make sure that in five years' time those books are within the system and are being used free of charge.