Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I fully acknowledge the progress that has been made, especially with book rental schemes, and I compliment the Minister and the Department for that. The feedback from schools in my area on this is very positive.

The discussion with the publishers should be reviewed, however, because school books in Ireland are too expensive. We should not allow a cartel to control school books, particularly when the Department has ring-fenced that amount of money. It could be a smaller amount if the books were not so expensive and the remainder could be used in other areas rather than giving it to private publishers.

Every year when the junior and leaving certificates are completed, the examination papers become available without any copyright. All subjects at both levels are free to be cogged and that is what these companies do. As there is no copyright, the examination papers are on sale in a nearby bookshop for between €6 and €8, after they have been paid for by the taxpayer. These private companies have been selling these year after year. We give them the examination papers, which were paid for by the taxpayer, for free and they reprint them in India or Bangladesh, earning them €3 million in the last year. These companies should not have free access to any documents paid for by the taxpayer.

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