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

I am prepared to examine the scheme at the end of the year, but I will have to do so within fixed resources. I have €5 million per year for the next three years and an annual book grant of €7 million. The Deputies opposite have the same option as me of investigating whether we have complete information. If a school has a full book rental scheme up and running, it may not get any money under the book grant scheme and we will use some of the €7 million to skew it towards schools which have started book rental schemes but which have not completed their preparations in the manner suggested. There are different ways of doing this, but the amount of money is fixed. If Deputies or schools are prepared to come forward with suggestions for completing book rental scheme preparations, I will be open to them provided they understand the constraints under which I must operate, namely, that the total amount for next year is €12 million, comprising €7 million from the book grant scheme and €5 million from the special rental scheme. At the end of the day I want all parents to feel their children have access to book rental schemes they can afford.

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