Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The policy of ensuring every school has a school book rental scheme is commendable and we fully support it. However, we part ways on the question of how the scheme will proceed. It is based on very crude information and the only question asked was whether the school operated a school book rental scheme. Any school that answered "Yes" was excluded from the new scheme, even though some of these schools were struggling to maintain their rental schemes or operated schemes that were not particularly wide ranging. That information should have been sought in the questionnaire because we are now looking at a total of €15 million in the next three years. The Minister previously stated the €15 million allocation would be sufficient to ensure that by the end of year three every primary school in the State would have a school book rental scheme. He may be able to confirm whether that is still his estimate or whether the figure will be significantly less. Is anything available to help schools which are in the early stages of implementing school book rental schemes and which may only cover one subject? Is this something that can be reviewed at the end of year one? Perhaps further information on the types of school book rental scheme in place can be gathered in the next 12 months to ensure that if additional money is available in year two, the scheme can be extended to schools which have already started schemes but which have not got them to a stage where they are fully operational. Is that something to which the Minister is willing to commit?

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