Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I will try to get straight to the questions. The presentation from the INTO, as always, was straight to the point. There is an opportunity for the Department today to try to outline the rationale for the decision to initially allocate money for a school book rental scheme for that percentage of schools that did not operate one. A explanation has never been given as to why it was targeting schools with no school book rental scheme in place, to the detriment of other schools that had school book rental schemes but were at varying degrees in terms of implementation. Some would be very basic school book rental schemes. The only conclusion one could come to, to borrow a phrase from Mr. McMahon, it that it is a box-ticking exercise by the Department to be able to say that every school has a school book rental scheme. If that was the purpose of the initial decision, then that did not succeed, because there are 531 schools that do not operate a school book rental scheme and I understand that only 400 have applied for funding to operate one. There are still 131 schools that have not applied under the new funding allocation. What is the position regarding those schools?

A further issue, related to the cost of school books, is the voluntary code of practice that was entered into with publishers in 2011. The INTO might have some information on that - I am sure the Department has - and how successful it was. One of the agreements as part of that code of practice was to offer schools a discount of up to 17.5% if they bought in bulk. How is that being measured within the Department, and it is experience of the INTO that this is happening in practice as well as in theory?

On the issue of energy costs in schools, I read the detailed submission that was made. In the presentation it was stated that schools should have an energy efficiency plan, implemented by boards of management, and if after two to three years there is no reduction in energy costs, schools could face financial sanctions. Could the representatives give us more information on that? There are schools that would love to see a reduction in their energy costs but because of the quality of the buildings they are in it would be very difficult to achieve any significant savings. Is there a percentage they would have to reach before they would like to see financial sanctions put in place? Schools are already struggling. We had the scraping of various summer scheme grants, although I acknowledge that they are now back in place, which schools would have used in the main to upgrade heating systems or replace windows and carry out basic remedial works to try to save energy costs in the longer run. There is that balancing act. I would like the representatives to tease out the issue of financial penalties.

I direct my final question to Mr. John Dolan from the Department with regard to the construction of new school buildings and extensions.

Obviously, best practice is being followed, but it should be followed across the board. How is the Department measuring its success? Are there benchmarks? I ask the delegates for more information on how the Department is measuring the success of these new initiatives.