Vol. 488 No. 7
416 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Science the cost to the State of supplying books to libraries in schools and public libraries throughout the country on an annual basis; if his attention has been drawn to the serious lack of up-to-date books for these institutions; the Government's commitment to improving the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7161/98]
My Department operates a scheme of grants whereby a per capita grant is paid to the chief librarians of the local authorities in respect of the number of national school pupils enrolled in each local authority area.
Local authority librarians select, purchase and deliver books to primary schools. Primary schools in turn provide a lending and reference service to pupils. In many cases the local authorities supplement the Department grant.
I should point out that I will be making available an extra £0.5 million for the provision of primary school books in 1998, in addition to the existing provision for school and library books. I am satisfied that this initiative, in addition to recent increases as set out in the following table, is an important step forward in improving the level of provision in this area and I assure the Deputy that I am committed to further improvements in the future.
The following table sets out the per capita rate and the overall allocation under this scheme in recent years:
|
Year |
Rate of grant per pupil |
Overall allocation |
|
£ |
£ |
|
|
1994 |
0.51 |
257,000 |
|
1995 |
1.00 |
503,000 |
|
1996 |
2.00 |
952,000 |
|
1997 |
2.08 |
973,000 |
|
1998 |
2.15 |
973,000 |
