Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I welcome the fact she will, as I understand it from her response, look at the www.schoolbookexchange.ie website, which was a service used by 17,000 people in the past year and is, I understand, a not for profit organisation. Will the Minister of State analyse how the Department could assist with the running costs of this operation?

Given modern technology, we need to move into a new era in regard to school books. It is about time the publishers considered online books. In some states of the USA, school books are online and free to view and one would only pay to print out the workbook. The cost of school books is enormous, particularly with so many people on reducing incomes or unemployed. Will the Minister of State consider the provision by, first, the publishers and, second, by not for profit organisations, or perhaps by a group of teachers or the like, of online workbooks in particular? I understand that changes to workbooks cause the most problems.

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