Fr. Paul Connell:

We welcome the opportunity to speak to the committee. We have looked at the report carefully. We are disappointed it did not take into account much of what was said on the previous occasion. We have sent in a written submission on this point so I will not dwell on it. We welcome some of the initiatives with regard to the book rental scheme put in place by the Minister for primary schools. It is indicative of where we are that most of our colleagues across Europe have books provided by the state for all pupils. That point should be made and is perhaps glossed over. It is Government policy that has us in the situation where books are so expensive for our parents.

With regard to book rental schemes at second level, there is a difficulty in the sense that we have a new junior certificate programme coming in. It does not make sense for schools with the no book rental scheme to start one right now because they will put a lot of money into something that may not be used if the junior certificate curriculum changes.

The second thing we noted when we were here is that technology is changing rapidly. The use of e-books is coming into schools and that solves a great deal of difficulty with regard to the weight of schoolbooks. It also has other advantages but we need to look at the area rather than looking at something that may be obsolete in a number of years. The committee and politicians have a role to play in this. E-books have a prohibitive rate of 23% VAT. We mentioned that before but there was no mention of it in the report.

The other area that needs to be tackled is publishing. While we commend the Minister on his charter with the publishers, we must examine the business of licensing with regard to e-books. If parents buy books for the first child, they can be passed on to the second or third child with no difficulty. However, publishers are insisting a new licence must be issued each time for each child. This is scandalous and should be tackled.

With regard to back-to-school costs across the board, we welcome the initiative taken by the Minister with regard to uniforms. We do not have a difficulty with this because we work very closely with parents. We do not have a difficulty because our parents are at the core of what we do. Without the parents, we would not survive. The submission from the Department of Education and Skills recognises that funding is limited and the reality is that, as we see from the recent ESRI report, 30% of funding comes from our parents. Without that funding, we could not exist. The report suggests voluntary contributions should not be allowed. We agree, but in the current situation it is impossible and our schools could not survive without the resources our parents provide for us. We welcome any initiative and to do otherwise would be contrary to everything we have been doing for many years.

Outside the fee-paying sector, it is accepted that financial contributions to schools must remain voluntary and that no linkage should exist between admissions procedures and the making of such voluntary contributions. That continues to be the case in our schools. As schools and school managers, we are acutely aware of pressure on parents but it is delivered through Government policy, which has cut funding by 11% over the past four or five years. It continues as an ongoing pressure.

We welcome initiatives such as the summer works scheme being restored. It is important to us. We hope other schemes will be put in place. Our schools are doing their very best for our pupils. We strive to give them the best education possible, including extra-curricular activities.

A wide range of extra curricular activities are available in all our schools and to all our pupils at no cost to any of them. The impression which might be given that these things are charged for is completely erroneous in our system.

Another issue on which I would like to focus is that patrons do not run our schools. If members read the Education Act 1998 carefully, they will see it states that it shall be the duty of a board to manage the school on behalf of the patron and for the benefit of the students and their parents and to provide or cause to be provided an appropriate education for each student at the school for which that board has responsibility. We do not represent patrons or trustees but we support boards of management which have the responsibility for running the schools. To suggest that patrons have a role in school uniforms is nonsense. It is a matter for the boards of management which work very closely with parents, parents' associations and so on.

Whole community involvement in funding was mentioned in the report. Everyone should be aware that boards of management are representative of the communities from which they come. Our finances, reports and otherwise, are available, contrary to what was implied in the report that they are not. They are freely available. I encourage the committee to continue to do the good work it is doing and to encourage the downward trend in school costs. We would maintain it is Government policy which has, unfortunately, caused a great deal of difficulty for our parents. We are at the edge of this. We are trying to do our best for our pupils and our parents. We work very closely with them and will continue to do so.