asked the Minister for Education if he will make a statement concerning the resolution passed by certain vocational education committees seeking action by his Department in relation to the yearly change of text books and the placing of an order for text books with a firm in Hong Kong.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - School Text Books.
12.
My Department have directed the attention of the school authorities concerned to the desirability of changing "unprescribed" text books as infrequently as possible. Only a small percentage of text books are prescribed by my Department and most of these are repeated in rotation from year to year, generally in a three to four year cycle.
As the production of text books is in the hands of commercial firms the question of where they place their printing orders and so on is not within my control. However, my Department have recently reminded the school authorities of the desirability, particularly in the current economic situation, of using Irish-produced text books as far as possible.