Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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264. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the additional time and resources school managements in post-primary schools must give during the school holidays for the roll-out of free schoolbooks to junior cycle students; if further assistance can be given to these schools for this purpose; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36017/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As you are aware in early March, I announced details of a new scheme which provides free schoolbooks to Junior Cycle students in post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. To support its implementation my Department published guidance for schools on the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme.

More than 213,000 students enrolled in approximately 670 post-primary schools and over 65 special schools, will benefit from the new scheme. The investment of €68 million in 2024 significantly increases the funding that is currently provided for schoolbooks and introduces a free schoolbooks scheme to Junior Cycle years in all post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme.

I appreciate that the free Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme has placed an additional administrative burden on post-primary schools and I would like to acknowledge the hard work that has been done by schools on the scheme to date. That is why, similar to the primary scheme, an Administration Support Grant was put in place to assist post-primary schools with the administrative work involved in implementing this scheme.

Schools may use this grant to employ a person to work for a specified number of days to carry out administrative work on the scheme. Ten, thirteen or sixteen days have been allocated to each post-primary school, based on the size of the school’s Junior Cycle enrolment numbers. Details of the Administration Support Grant are also outlined in detail in the scheme guidance.

My Department has currently began an in-depth review of the first year of the Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme in conjunction with the Department of Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform. 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 also look at a variety of key areas including the issue of administration support in schools and will give schools with the opportunity to provide feedback on the scheme.