Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, but wish to stress that this strategy should be published as a matter of urgency.

I have one final issue, namely, the price of e-books, that he might take up with the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. It is bizarre that an e-book costs more than the paper book, even though the latter has to be printed, distributed and sold in shops, while an e-book can be purchased online. I have raised this point previously with the Minister at the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, but the general response is that European law covers it and we did not get an exemption for e-books. Obviously, e-books had not been conceived when the EU legislation was enacted, but it does not appear the Government is doing anything to change that. If we are unhappy with the EU legislation we should be pushing for an updated directive. I ask the Minister of State to raise that matter with the Minister. It is a big issue because it is prohibitively expensive for students to use tablets with e-books, rather than carrying around heavy schoolbags.