Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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247. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of secondary schools operating book rental schemes by county, in tabular form; and the efforts made by his Department to encourage the uptake of such schemes. [26660/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The most recent figures available at second level indicate that 65% of second level schools operate book rental schemes.

The following table gives a breakdown of the number of post-primary schools per county that provide a School Book Rental Scheme.

In relation to supporting book rental schemes, my Department provides funding that provides assistance for books for students in all recognised post-primary schools within the Free Education Scheme. The arrangements in relation to this scheme are set out in Circular 0046/2013 which is published on my Department’s website.

"Guidelines for Developing Textbook Rental Schemes in Schools" were launched by my Department in 2013. These Guidelines provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated. The aim of the Guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start such book rental programmes. A special "Guide for Parents" was also published, to inform them of how the schemes operate and how parents can help schools to establish and run them.

The Government has just launched the first Action Plan for Education aimed at making the Irish education and training service the best in Europe by 2026. This plan, which incorporates my Department's Strategy Statement as well as the Action Plan of Education outlines hundreds of actions to be implemented across 2016-2019. One of the actions as part of the plan is to strengthen the focus on reducing school costs for parents by increasing the financial support for book rental schemes, in order to reduce/eliminate school book costs for parents as resources permit.Post Primary Schools by County that have Book Rental Scheme