Vol. 534 No. 4
229 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will examine the situation where a local authority has a public library and where the schools in that catchment area have no library facilities with a view to providing library facilities for such schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10951/01]
The Department of Environment and Local Government has established a working group on the schools' library service. My Department, the Library Council and local authority librarians are also represented on the group. One of the terms of reference of the group is to consider the role of the public library service in the operation of the school libraries.
The group has held a number of meetings and will continue to meet over the period of the next six months. If the Deputy wishes to provide further details regarding the matter raised in his question, I will ensure that it is brought to the attention of the working group.
I am conscious of the need to ensure that all schools have access to proper library facilities and resources. In this regard, in recent years my Department has issued two grants to primary and post primary schools to assist them with the development of their library resource materials. The first grant was issued in December 1998 and all primary schools received a grant of £1,000 per school, while schools designated as disadvantaged received £3,170 each. The grant issued to second level schools in December 1998 amounted to £2,500, while disadvantaged schools received £5,320.
My Department issued a second grant to all primary and post primary schools in December 1999, as part of the national reading initiative. Under the terms of this grant primary schools received a payment of £7.70 per pupil, while a minimum grant of £462 was issued to all schools with 60 pupils or less. Post primary schools also received £7.70 per pupil, while a minimum grant of £1,540 was paid to all schools with less than 200 recognised pupils. At primary level, the total value of these two grants was approximately £7.7 million, while at second level the two grants amounted to £5.2 million.
