Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason he plans to increase funding to schoolbook rental schemes as indicated in the action plan for education 2016-2019 despite these schemes not being fully comprehensive or available in all schools and evidence from an organisation (details supplied) to suggest it would cost the State just €40 million to provide all school children with free school books; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30116/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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School book rental schemes have an important role to play in reducing the cost of school books for parents.

Circa. 94% of primary schools and 65% of post-primary schools operate a book rental scheme.

My Department supports the operation of book rental schemes through the funding provided under its school books grant scheme. Under this scheme, my Department provides funding of €15 million annually to primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme.

The survey from the organisation referred to by the Deputy indicates that it would require an additional investment of around €40 million to provide all school children with free school books. This should not be taken to mean that this organisation does not see the value of school book rental schemes. It should be noted that the organisation's €40 million estimate is in addition to the Department's existing annual investment under the school books grant scheme.

It is important to note that the total allocation to this Department for additional policy measures after demographics and Industrial Relation commitments, was €130 million, and of which all our commitments in higher and further education and primary and secondary schools had to be funded.

One of the actions as part of the recently published Action Plan for Education 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.

It was not possible to make progress on this issue in Budget 2017 due to the many competing demands for the available funding. However, this commitment remains a priority for me as soon as possible to address during the lifetime of the Action Plan.