asked the Minister for Education the amount of finance allocated over the last five years for the purchase of school books for children of medical card holders in the following primary schools (a) the Christian Brothers school (b) the Presentation Convent and (c) the Ursuline Convent, Thurles, County Tipperary.
Written Answers. - Free School Books Scheme.
138.
It would not be in accordance with normal practice to give details of the grants paid to individual schools.
Under the scheme for the provision of free books for necessitous children in national schools, a necessitous pupil is defined as a child from a home where genuine hardship exists because of unemployment, prolonged illness of a parent, a large family with inadequate means, a single parent family circumstances or other circumstances that would connote a similar degree of domestic financial hardship.
The grant is paid to the principal teachers, who have discretion in the disbursement of funds under the scheme and in deciding to what extent assistance should be given in individual cases.