Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for being here. While schools might be out for summer, parents and students will soon be preparing to return in September. The issue of the weight of schoolbags remains unresolved not for another year, but for another decade. The issue was raised in the Dáil as far back as 1996, and the then Minister, Ms Breathnach, gave the exact same reply as the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, gave in 2014. Both said it was a matter for local school management and that circular letters to this effect, incorporating the recommendations of the working group on the issue, were sent to schools in 1998 and 2005.

The time lag is notable. The 1998 report generated two circular letters, both with the same content and both deferring to local school management. In the meantime, an entire generation of schoolchildren have struggled to and from school with schoolbags weighing up to two stone in some cases. The Minister of State can correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that since the working group reported in 1998 there has been no follow-up, no examination on if and how its recommendations are being implemented, and 17 years later there is still no comprehensive current research.

Osteopaths, physiotherapists and doctors report an ever-increasing number of incidents of schoolchildren presenting with serious neck, shoulder and back strain due entirely to the weight of schoolbags. A school principal who survey pupils found the junior students carry the heaviest weight as they have 13 subjects. In that case, the first year students were carrying in excess of 15 kg in textbooks and copybooks.The recommended weight for children of 12 years is 12% of their body mass, which would average at 3.5 kg of textbooks for 13 year olds and 6.3 kg for 17 year old male students. The detrimental and long-term effects on the still developing spine of a 12 year old carrying five times the recommended weight is of serious concern to many parents and an issue of national importance requiring a national and co-ordinated response. Mr. Liam Moloney, a Naas-based health care solicitor, is on record as saying that the failure of many school managers to deal with it was one of the most serious issues of our time and "the State could face thousands of future compensation claims from school children who suffer back injuries if their School Managers have not complied with the recommendations made by the Department of Education." This issue could leave the Army deafness and other compensation claims in the ha'penny place. More important, in letting this situation run on without proper checks and balances and systematic review by the Department of Education and Skills, we are damaging the health of the most precious asset the State possesses, namely, the health and welfare of our young people. If employees in any sector were presenting with such symptoms on so large a scale, a major health and safety investigation would be put in place.

There have been successful and ingenious commercial initiatives, such as Booksplits, the brainwave of mother of four Ms Margo Fleming from Wicklow, which is now a commercially available alternative that reduces the weight of text books by half. Alternatively, some schools are replacing books with tablets, some have lockers and some do not, with some allowing children to leave books in school while others do not.

Will the Minister of State revisit this issue as a matter of urgency, commission research on every aspect of it and put in place a system that would guarantee a uniform application of unequivocal regulations? Issuing guidelines to schools has manifestly failed and it is now time for another approach.