Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the discussions he has had with the publishers of school text books; and the measures that are being implemented to reduce the cost of books for parents of children attending primary and post primary schools. [25101/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I recently met with educational book publishers, representatives of parents' organisations and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul regarding the cost of textbooks. Subsequently, the publishers devised a voluntary Code of Practice and, while I welcome the Code, I believe that more should be done to reduce the price of textbooks.

Accordingly, I have proposed to the publishers: that the price of the most popular textbooks should be reduced; that a significant discount should be given to schools which purchase in bulk; that the practice of combining a textbook and workbook in a single volume should be ended; that support materials should be provided to teachers online; and that unnecessary revisions to textbooks should be avoided.

While respecting that the publishers are private companies not under the control of my Department, I intend to meet with them again to progress these issues.