Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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194. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has considered the effects that the free schoolbooks scheme will have on small retailers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40005/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Education, I believe it is crucially important that children and young people are actively supported to access education in its fullest forms. This Government recognises that the cost of preparing children for school each September can be a cause of financial difficulty and worry for many Irish families.

Since Budget 2023, major investment totalling over €169 million has been allocated to provide free schoolbooks in primary schools and special schools for the last two years and in post-primary schools at Junior Cycle for the current year.

Under Budget 2025 I announced a further €51 million for the extension the free schoolbooks scheme to all students in Senior Cycle years in post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. This reinforces the Government’s commitment to expand the free schoolbooks scheme to schools nationwide.

The Department has published guidance documents for schools around the operation of each of the primary and Junior Cycle schoolbooks schemes, in continued engagement with stakeholders, including education management bodies, the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul, Barnardos, Bookselling Ireland and the Irish Education Publishers Association. Update guidance documents to include the Senior Cycle scheme in post-primary schools will be published in advance of the 2025/26 academic year in continued engagement with key stakeholders.

Junior Cycle Schoolbook Scheme funding issued to all post-primary schools in the free scheme in March, and Primary Schoolbook Scheme funding issued to all recognised primary schools in May to ensure schools had the financial resources in place to implement the scheme in advance of the start of the 2024/25 school year.

The published guidance contains information that highlights the importance of schools engaging with bookshops and booksellers proactively to ensure a smooth implementation of the new arrangements. It draws attention to the role that the Office of Government Procurement plays in promoting schemes to facilitate Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) participation in Public Procurement and includes direct reference to DPER Circular 05/2023 that refers to initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement. It also outlines the schemes which schools may consider as part of their procurement process.

It is important to note that schools, like other organisations that receive public sector funding, have obligations that stem from both EU and national public procurement rules when sourcing goods and services. Schools must follow public procurement guidelines detailed in Appendix 4 of the guidance which is available at www.gov.ie/schoolbookschemes. The guidance does not place any additional responsibilities upon schools that are not already in legislation.

In consultation with key procurement partners, the Department has developed Procurement Guidance and procurement supports and resources to assist primary and post-primary schools. This includes a standardised quotation request template that schools can use to simplify the quotation request process. The procurement guidance, supports and resources are available on the Schools Procurement Unit website at www.spu.ie/schoolbooks-scheme/.

Officials in the Department also proactively engaged with counterparts in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the types of supports available to book sellers to ensure that they have access to training and information on the Office of Government Procurement eTenders system so that they are in a position to respond to tenders requests as and when they wish to do so.

The Department is also currently leading on the development of a procurement solution for post-primary schools to support both schools and booksellers in the procurement process for 2025/26.

As part of the preparation for the extension of the scheme to all Senior Cycle students, officials will continue to engage with Bookselling Ireland, who represent the majority of book shops. Additionally, as part of the on-going evaluation of the schemes, 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.