Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I will respond first to what Deputy Boyd Barrett said. Within the primary school structure there are parents' representatives on the boards of management. Therefore, if any parents feel they have been unduly pressurised, I suggest their first port of call should be to the parents' representative. In the post-primary sector, depending on the school, parental representation is not as transparent because the structures are different. If they cannot, or do not want to for personal reasons, go to a parents' representative on that board of management, I recommend that they contact the National Parents' Council and express their concerns there. The National Parents' Council is a recognised partner in the education sector, so that is the way I would recommend them to go if they do not feel personally that they wish to contact the school's board of management.

With regard to Deputy Crowe's point, school uniform and book-lending schemes will reduce the turnover involved. A decision to change, for example, a geography book for 90 junior cycle children has implications. We are talking about books that cost €24 each. A schoolbook lending scheme will prolong the life of the volumes and reduces the costs involved. The primary school survey that must be completed by October each year contains a question about book-lending schemes. We do not know how many such schemes there are, and they can operate in different ways. We are hoping to get a best practice model that can operate in primary schools and another model for secondary schools. If it happens, it will not be in the current academic year but hopefully it will start to happen next year.

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