Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister had two minutes to answer, but she only spent about 15 seconds addressing the question, which was about the process. What was the basis of assessment, what benchmarking was done, what market research was carried out and what costings were done? I hear what the Minister said regarding the three-year pilot and a range of data, but what I am looking for is the actual range of data. If the Minister is expecting €96 to cover schoolbooks, workbooks, copybooks, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, colouring pencils, white board markers and, if there is anything left over, dictionaries, mathematical sets and calculators, then, as one senior staff member in a school put it, we would truly love to know where the she is shopping. Does the Minister really expect to get all of that for €96? Where there is a shortfall, I ask the Minister to detail how it is to be made up.

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