Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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473. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is grant funding available to aid completion of design of educational publications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4480/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The current policy of the Department of Education is not to endorse or promote any particular programme, product or publication to support the teaching of subjects. 

There are limited exceptions where my Department has procured textbooks or resources in order to fill a specific and urgent need e.g. educational material in braille. Such supports for the production of learning materials is not specifically funding to aid completion of design of education publications. 

Apart from curriculum specifications and a small number of prescribed texts at post-primary level, determined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the decisions on which publications, textbooks, programmes and resources, if any, to use in primary and post-primary schools to support the implementation of the curriculum, are taken at school level.

The NCCA meets with the educational publishers collectively, to update them regularly on curriculum developments and apprise them of the timelines for the development of new specifications. The NCCA does not advise upon the content of specific text books. Nor does the NCCA review or provide feedback on textbooks or have any role in endorsing or approving textbooks. Any such action by the NCCA would be considered as potential interference with the commercial marketplace.