Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 131, 133, 137 and 154 together.

The matter has been dealt with and I can only repeat what I stated, that I responded to a request from parents to reduce the cost of sending children to school. They identified two areas, namely, books and uniforms. I will leave the issue of uniforms aside because I have asked for a survey to be conducted in this regard and when I receive it, I will return to the House and answer questions.

With regard to books, in the interests of fairness, I want every school to have a book rental scheme. Approximately 20% of schools were without such a scheme. I received an extra €5 million per year for three years - a total of €15 million - to fill the gap in the figure of 20%. Was it unfair to those who had struggled to put in place a school book rental scheme? Yes, it was, but it was very fair to those kids in schools which had no book rental scheme. I had to make that choice and I made it in the way I did. The book grant of €7 million a year goes to all other schools and this will continue. If I get extra resources, it will help to augment the scheme in some schools which commenced a book rental scheme in two, three or four areas.

It will be equalised. If I can improve the scheme in the future I will, but I wanted to ensure that every parent struggling with the cost of sending his or her child to school had the choice of paying €40 a year under this scheme as distinct from the €150 to €200 it could cost for books.

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