Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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494. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to provide additional funding to schools to offset the extra costs associated with Circular 33/2015, as electronic systems for the recording of pupils' attendance are an additional financial burden on schools, and given that roll books and so on were provided free by her Department until now; the amount her Department has spent on providing roll books and registers to schools for each of the past ten years; and the amount her Department plans to save over the next year due to schools that use electronic attendance systems no longer having to use roll books and so on. [27230/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Circular 33/2015, which was published earlier this year, provides that primary schools that have populated all their pupil enrolment data on the Primary Online Database (POD) in accordance with the requirements set out by the Department's Statistics Section will have the option to use electronic attendance records with effect from the commencement of the 2015/16 school year subject to such electronic system meeting certain minimum requirements as set out in Appendix 1 of this Circular.

This is not a mandatory requirement. It is a matter for the Board of Management of each school to decide whether to continue maintaining the Leabhar Rolla (Roll Book) in hard copy or to maintain the record of daily attendance in electronic format. Whichever system is adopted should be used consistently throughout all the classes in the school. Schools that opt to maintain the Leabhar Rolla in hard copy can continue to request these books from the Department.

At this stage, it is not possible to estimate how many schools will opt to maintain the record of daily attendance in electronic format.

Circular 33/2015 also confirms that primary schools that have populated all their pupil enrolment data on POD in accordance with the requirements set out by the Department's Statistics Section no longer need to maintain the Clárleabhar (Register) with effect from the commencement of the 2015/16 school year. POD contains the same information and it is not necessary for schools to maintain a duplicate record in the Clárleabhar.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of the last ten years is not readily available within my Department and would take an inordinate amount of time to compile. Given that the books in question are procured by my Department through a public procurement process, information in relation to the costs in question would also be commercially sensitive.