Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's support and want to acknowledge that there has been almost unanimous support within the Chamber for this measure. He is correct and I am conscious that the information needs to be in schools soon so that they have the opportunity to do what needs to be done in terms of the scheme. I recognise that schools will need to have this have this information available to them after the Easter break and we are working towards that schedule. As I have outlined to the Deputy, it is important that proper consultation takes place. We have had consultation with the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, the Irish Educational Publishers Association and Booksellers Ireland.

The Deputy also referenced post-primary schools. Initially, this is a primary-led initiative and there will be great learning from it. It is my hope and expectation that we will have an opportunity, going forward, to extend it to the post-primary sector. I also want to acknowledge that the package provided to schools will be based on the learnings that we had from the book rental scheme and the free book pilot scheme that we ran across 102 DEIS primary schools. This provides a significant learning opportunity, combined with what we will learn from the publishers.

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