Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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51. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the 2024 free schoolbooks capitation per pupil has been reduced from €96 in 2023 to €80 in 2024; if she is concerned that this will result in schools requesting parents to make financial contributions to schools to cover the shortfall; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27413/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In 2024 over €47 million was allocated to continue implementation of the schoolbooks scheme at primary level. On the 8^th May I announced details of year 2 of the Primary Schoolbooks Scheme which provides at a minimum free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks to pupils in recognised primary and special schools. More than 555,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,230 primary schools, including over 130 special schools will continue to benefit from this scheme.

Revised guidance for the 2024/25 school year was published on my Department’s website at and has issued to schools.

As the scheme is now implemented in every recognised primary and special school it is expected that schools have used the funding provided in the 2023/24 school year to purchase stocks of schoolbooks and other classroom resources. Many of these items 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.

Schools have received €80 per pupil enrolled as of September 2023. Special schools that have students enrolled in Junior Cycle programmes have received funding at the Junior Cycle per capita rate of €309 per student set out under the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme to further support these students.

At a minimum the scheme funding is to provide schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for all children and young people enrolled in recognised primary schools and special schools. Parents and guardians must not be asked to purchase or make a contribution to the school towards the cost of these items.

Where the costs have been covered for the minimum requirements, as set out above, but additional classroom resources are required and cannot be covered under the scheme, parents/guardians must be advised of how these items will be provided. Schools should either provide parents/guardians with a list of the specific items that they are required to purchase, or provide them with information of the cost that the school will charge and a list of items that the school will provide for this cost.

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.

Section 64 of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018, which was commenced in 2018 explicitly prohibits the charging of admission and enrolment fees for admission to or for continued enrolment in a school, with some exceptions such as boarding or fee-charging schools.

The manner in which any voluntary contributions are sought and collected is a matter for school management, however their collection should be such as not to create a situation where either parents/guardians or pupils could reasonably infer that the contributions are compulsory.