Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when her Department entered into any negotiations with a book provider to reduce the cost, rather than passing it over to the parent, considering the reduction in the schoolbook grant (details supplied). [24223/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Education I believe it is crucially important that all children and young people are actively supported to access education in its fullest forms.

Since June 2020, and over the past four Budgets, I have secured funding to support measures aimed at achieving that goal. One of the most important policies in this regard has been the establishment of Ireland’s first free primary school book scheme in 2023, which has been fully funded to provide free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks to every student enrolled in primary and special schools. This has also been expanded to all Junior Cycle students in second-level schools in the Free Education Scheme.

More than 555,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,229 primary schools, including 138 special schools will benefit from this measure in the 2024/25 school year.

I know that families can face struggles in preparing for the return to school. This free schoolbooks scheme eliminates the cost to all families for schoolbooks at primary school and enrolled in Junior Cycle, including workbooks and copybooks.

In the past few weeks over €44.4 million issued to recognised primary and special schools around the country to continue implementation of the free schoolbooks scheme at primary level. Revised guidance for the 2024/25 school year was published on my Department’s website and has also issued to schools.

Clearly, in the first year of the scheme being operated, there was a recognition that many schools would be purchasing a stock of books for the very first time. Many of these books are now available to schools for reuse in the 2024/25 school year and in future school years. The funding allocated to the scheme in the 2024/25 school year takes account of this. This is also in line with ensuring value for money for the taxpayer and avoiding significant waste of books etc where possible.

Under the scheme for the 2024/25 school year, schools have received €80 per pupil. It is open to schools to look at their requirements and plan their budget across each of the years collectively. They may choose to spend more than €80 per pupil in one class and in turn, spend less than that per pupil in another class. In other words, while schools will receive the money at the same per capita rate for all pupils they can choose to spread that expenditure differently across the years depending on the requirements. Special schools that have students enrolled in Junior Cycle programmes will receive funding at the Junior Cycle per capita rate set out under the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme.

My officials have engaged with all relevant stakeholders, including the Irish Education Publishers Association (IEPA) and Bookselling Ireland, throughout the development and implementation of the schoolbooks schemes. My Department will continue to listen to the valuable input from all stakeholders, on their experiences from both the primary and Junior Cycle schoolbook schemes.

The main Irish educational publishers have agreed to apply a code of practice designed to help reduce the cost of schoolbooks for parents/guardians and schools. As part of this code, publishers have given commitments to maintain new editions of schoolbooks in print for a minimum of six years, to co-operate with individual schools in the development of schoolbook schemes and to have improved engagement with school communities, parents/guardians, teachers, and other stakeholders.

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

In terms of the content, the Department of Education does not have a role in approving, commissioning, sponsoring or endorsing any content in any educational product. The Curriculum specification and prescribed syllabus material are determined by the NCCA and it is the responsibility of each individual school to select the resources that it will use to support its implementation of the curriculum.

As part of the on-going evaluation of the scheme, all schools will be asked to provide data on their expenditure in order to inform the guidance, implementation, costs and efficiency of the scheme for future years. This review will ensure that the schemes will aim to ensure that value for money is achieved, and that schools will be supported to implement the scheme in a way that has the best learning outcomes for children and young people.