Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 December 2013
58. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the role his Department plays in book rental schemes; if he has provided any funding for same in 2013; if any public moneys have been allocated for same; the criteria or guidelines in place for awarding any such funding; if there is an applications process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53249/13]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware I launched new "Guidelines for Developing Textbook Rental Schemes in Schools" on the 28th January last. These Guidelines provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated. The aim of the Guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start such book rental programmes. The publication of these Guidelines follows a survey of schools by the Department, and which I published in May 2012. This had a 99% response rate at primary level, and showed that 76% of primary schools operate a book rental scheme. At second level, the response rate was lower, at 44%. Of those which did respond, 88% of those in the VEC sector and 73% of those in the Community & Comprehensive sector operated a book rental scheme. I believe these results show that we have a good foundation to build on across the country. I hope that schools that are not yet operating book rental schemes will be encouraged to use the Guidelines to introduce them. If they do, it will result in substantial savings for parents. Schools which already have rental schemes can save parents up to 80% of the cost of buying new books. A special "Guide for Parents" was also published, to inform them of how the schemes operate and how parents can help schools to establish and run them. I have been very clear in my support for book rental schemes. All of us who are parents know how expensive textbooks can be and what a burden it places on already hard pressed families at the start of every school year. I am pleased to see the high level of book rental schemes in operation at primary level and I believe that these Guidelines will encourage this practice across all schools in our education landscape. The Department provided approximately €15m in total to first and second level schools by way of book grants in 2012 and the same level of funding was provided in 2013. The per capita funding provided to recognised primary and post-primary schools within the Free Education Scheme is set out in Circular 46/2013. This grant can be utilised for the purposes of a school's book rental scheme. The Deputy will also be aware from Budget 2014 that additional funding has been provided which will involve an investment of €15m to support the establishment of book rental schemes in primary schools that do not currently operate them. The Department will provide €5m in seed capital per annum over a three year period to such schools. I want to achieve a position where every primary schools has a book rental schemes in operation in the 2014/2015 school year. The Department will be contacting primary schools that do not currently operate a book rental scheme early in the New Year to advise them of the application process. To qualify for seed capital funding, schools will have to undertake to establish a book rental scheme from September 2014 and in return the Department will commit to the provision of such funding in 2014, 2015 and 2016. This scheme will be confined to primary schools that do not currently operate such a scheme.
