John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 478: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the withdrawal by him of a grant to a service (details supplied) in County Waterford will result in that service being discontinued in 2009 and that this mobile service provides the only access to a library service by pupils in most primary schools in County Waterford; if he will reconsider his decision to withdraw this grant in view of the consequences it will have; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43753/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Notwithstanding the increase of €302 million in the Education budget for 2009, which is a real achievement in the current economic climate, a number of tough and difficult decisions had to be taken. These decisions included the decision to discontinue the funding that my Department made available to local authorities to support school library services.

The amount of the grant payable to each local authority was based on the number of pupils in the relevant area and amounted to €4.52 per pupil. There will be no direct impact on the funding of individual schools as a result of the decision to discontinue this grant to local authorities. The indirect impacts of this measure in individual library areas will be a matter to be determined by each local authority in the context of its overall resources and the services it provides.

The priority of this budget was to provide as much as was possible of available resources to direct funding to schools and it was not possible in this context to continue to provide money to the local authorities to support school library services.