Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1274: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if schools are under obligation to provide a library; and if not, if she will reform this situation. [28787/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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At primary level it is a matter for each Local Authority to provide a library service for schools in its area. While my Department has no involvement in the actual operation of this service, it does make a grant available to each Local Authority on an annual basis to enable Local Authority Librarians select, purchase, and deliver books to the primary schools in its area. The grant is based on the number of pupils enrolled in primary schools in each Local Authority area. Expenditure on the library grant at primary level was €2.07 million in the current year. Further increases in the level of the grant in future years will be considered as part of the normal estimates process.

In Decmber, 1998, as part of a special literacy initiative £3.997m was disbursed to primary schools by way of a once-off library grant. All primary schools received £1,000 under the scheme with an additional £2,170 per school allocated to schools in the disadvantaged areas scheme. A second grant issued to all primary schools in December, 1999 as part of the national reading initiative. Under the terms of this grant primary schools received a payment of £7.70 per pupil, while a minimum grant of £462 was issued to all schools with 60 pupils or less. The total value of these two grants was approximately £7.7 million (€9.8 million).

At post-primary level my Department provides a library of 100 metres squared in schools with an enrolment of 200-499 students while it provides 136 metres squared of accommodation for a library in schools with more than 500 students. Schools below 200 are examined individually.

Responsibility for the stocking of post-primary school libraries falls to be met by individual school authorities from within normal school budgets. In recent years two grants have issued to post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme to assist them with the development of their library resource materials. The first grant, which amounted to £2,500 or £5,320 in the case of disadvantaged schools, was called a library grant and was issued by my Department in December, 1998. A second grant issued to all post-primary schools in December, 1999 as part of the national reading initiative. Post-primary schools received £7.70 per pupil, while a minimum grant of £1,540 was paid to all schools with less than 200 recognised pupils. Total expenditure on these two grants amounted to £5.2 million (€6.6million).

Schools were informed that the grants were to be used to improve the range and quality of library books and an information note offering advice on book purchases was issued.

Under the Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP) new school libraries were set up in 11 participating post-primary schools for students up to Junior Certificate. The libraries are staffed by full-time qualified librarians. Reinforcing the concept of the whole-school approach to tackling literacy problems, the 11 schools were asked to draw up and implement library based strategies to tackle the literacy difficulties experienced by many JCSP students. On the basis of positive evaluation findings the project is being extended on a phased basis to additional schools participating in the Programme.