Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept that the Minister gave money to schools that needed and deserved it, and that is a benefit. He also acknowledged the anger among schools. I received a letter from the principal of Mercy School Wexford, Pat Gately, who was going mad about the fact the school was under a great deal of pressure to set up the scheme. He deals with many parents from a lower socioeconomic background and he was struggling to make it work. The scheme has been set up in such a way that some parents get the books free while the better-off parents subsidise them. Meanwhile, some schools did not set up a scheme because they did not need it. They have children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and did not see a great need for it but now they are going to avail of the scheme.

I acknowledge it would be difficult to organise, but will the Minister consider the schools which went to the bother of setting up their own schemes and are now finding it difficult because they have to deal with significant numbers of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds? It might be possible to give some assistance to these schools.

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