Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Minister and I, and everyone else in this House, is aware of the expensive nature of education in terms of school buildings, salaries, pensions etc. Primary and secondary education in particular is an expensive and extensive cost to the State, when one considers pay, pensions, school buildings etc., but I want to focus on a different aspect, that is, the cost to parents whose children attend both primary and secondary schools.

Regarding the cost of schoolbooks, I have long held the view that if the State and the Department of Education and Skills are to provide the buildings for schools and pay the salaries of those who teach in them why can they not do as has been done in other jurisdictions, namely, take responsibility for a tendering process for books? The most expensive item for a child going to primary or secondary school is the schoolbooks. They are particularly expensive in this jurisdiction vis-à-vis some of our European neighbours.

For instance, for children attending primary school in September, the individual starting cost is €350. That is probably not a lot of money for the upper class or those who are comfortably off, but for working class families, particularly with more than one child, it is an expensive outlay, and the outlay for secondary schools is almost twice that at around €770, according to the survey carried out by Barnardos last year.

This should not be franchised out to a collection of private companies that have some sort of a cartel going on the cost of these books. When we delve a little deeper to find out how much money is involved, It is not possible because the companies are not limited by guarantee. No Member of the Dáil or member of the public knows how much money these companies are making and I contend they are making an absolute fortune. We should be on the side of the parents and children and face down the book publishers. Thanks to the article by Nicola Byrne in the Irish Mail on Sunday, we know that not only are we dealing with Irish companies that do not produce any accounts but that these companies are farming out the printing of the books to outside of Europe, having them printed at rock bottom prices. That is not, however, reflected in the price parents must pay when they send their children to school in September. The Department of Education and Skills should take the side of the parents and children and exercise some control over this.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Maloney for raising this issue and I welcome the opportunity to clarify the position on the matter raised.

The Minister and I are very conscious that the cost of textbooks is a considerable burden on families. Textbooks are a very important way in which students can be supported in their learning and the range and quality of textbooks has increased in recent years.

Since taking up office, the Minister has attempted to take steps to reduce the burden on families. The Minister has met with members of the Irish Educational Publishers' Association and impressed on them the need to limit the cost of textbooks and to avoid placing schools and families in a position where textbooks are altered unnecessarily. The association responded positively to the Minister's approaches and agreed a voluntary code of practice among members. The code commits the publishers to limit the publication of new editions and to maintaining editions of books in print unchanged for at least six years. The publishers have also given assurances that they will sell textbooks to schools at substantial discounts so that schools can purchase textbooks in bulk to stock textbook rental schemes. All these developments are welcome.

The Minister launched guidelines for developing textbook rental schemes in schools last January. The guidelines provide practical advice to schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated. The aim of the guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start book rental programmes. The publication of the guidelines follows a survey of schools by the Department last year. This had a 99% response rate at primary level, and showed that 76% of primary schools operate a book rental scheme. At second level, the response rate was lower, at 44%. Of those who responded, 88% of those in the VEC sector and 73% of those in the community and comprehensive sector operated book rental schemes. These results show that we have a good foundation to build on across the country.

I hope that schools that are not yet operating book rental schemes will be encouraged to use the guidelines to introduce them. Schools which already have rental schemes can save parents up to 80% of the cost of buying new books. A special guide for parents has also been published to inform them of how the schemes operate and how parents can help schools to establish and run them. The Minister has been very clear in his support for book rental schemes.

The Minister has protected the budget for school book grants at €15 million over the past two years, despite economic pressures. He has consulted widely on the guidelines including working closely with the National Parents' Council at primary and post-primary levels, the Society of St Vincent De Paul and Barnardos to discuss ways of reducing the costs for parents.

Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I fully acknowledge the progress that has been made, especially with book rental schemes, and I compliment the Minister and the Department for that. The feedback from schools in my area on this is very positive.

The discussion with the publishers should be reviewed, however, because school books in Ireland are too expensive. We should not allow a cartel to control school books, particularly when the Department has ring-fenced that amount of money. It could be a smaller amount if the books were not so expensive and the remainder could be used in other areas rather than giving it to private publishers.

Every year when the junior and leaving certificates are completed, the examination papers become available without any copyright. All subjects at both levels are free to be cogged and that is what these companies do. As there is no copyright, the examination papers are on sale in a nearby bookshop for between €6 and €8, after they have been paid for by the taxpayer. These private companies have been selling these year after year. We give them the examination papers, which were paid for by the taxpayer, for free and they reprint them in India or Bangladesh, earning them €3 million in the last year. These companies should not have free access to any documents paid for by the taxpayer.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I have outlined the steps the Minister has taken to reduce the burden on families imposed by the costs of textbooks. There are two key elements to the plan to reduce costs: to encourage schools to take up the book rental schemes and to make parents aware of how to play a part in establishing such schemes in their own schools, and to secure the agreement of the Irish Educational Publishers' Association to sign up to the voluntary code of practice. The Minister has been forthright in saying he fully intends to see the association implement that code of practice and if it does not, the currently voluntary nature of the code of practice may become more mandatory.

I do not know if it is possible to retain copyright after putting an examination paper into the public domain. It would be an interesting idea and I will have a look at it. If we look at the options available to schools and boards of management, once the examination papers are in the public domain, there is nothing to prevent the students from photocopying them and binding them for future use. There is no obligation upon parents to go into a shop and buy a book like that. With some ingenuity such an expense could be avoided by schools in the future.