Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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247. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the funding awarded for schoolbooks was reduced to €80 per pupil from €96 in 2023; the savings to her Department from this reduction; if schools are allowed to pass on higher costs to parents; if she plans to reduce it further; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24053/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In Budget 2024 over €47 million was allocated to continue implementation of the schoolbooks scheme at primary level. On the 8^th May I announced details of year 2 of the Primary Schoolbooks Scheme which provides at a minimum free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks to pupils in recognised primary and special schools. More than 563,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,230 primary schools, including over 130 special schools will continue to benefit from this scheme.

Revised guidance for the 2024/25 school year was published on my Department’s website at www.gov.ie/schoolbookschemes and has issued to schools.

As the scheme is now implemented in every recognised primary and special school it is expected that schools have used the funding provided in the 2023/24 school year to purchase stocks of schoolbooks and other classroom resources. Many of these items are now available to schools for reuse in the 2024/25 school year and in future school years. The funding allocated to the scheme in the 2024/25 school year takes account of this.

Schools will receive €80 per pupil enrolled as of September 2023. It is open to schools to look at their requirements and plan their budget across each of the years collectively. They may choose to spend more than €80 per pupil in one class and in turn, spend less than that per pupil in another class. In other words, while schools will receive the money at the same per capita rate for all pupils they can choose to spread that expenditure differently across the years depending on the requirements. Special schools that have students enrolled in Junior Cycle programmes will receive funding at the Junior Cycle per capita rate set out under the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme.

The main aim of the scheme is to eliminate the cost of schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for parents/guardians. The schoolbook funding is ring-fenced for these items and, where funding permits, additional classroom resources. The cost for any school-based activity, such as swimming lessons or class trips, is not considered a legitimate expense under the Primary Schoolbooks Scheme. As outlined to schools in the published guidance it is recognised, that, in some schools, the total book grant provided may not be sufficient to cover the costs of all related classroom resources and therefore certain charges may be legitimately requested from a parent. If, in Year 2, schools are unable to cover the cost of all additional classroom resources from within the grant funding, they must communicate with parents/guardians and inform them where related classroom resources cannot be provided under the scheme setting out what items are required or what items will be provided by any charge levied on parents under the schoolbook scheme.

As part of the on-going evaluation of the scheme, all schools will be asked to provide data on their expenditure in order to inform the guidance, implementation, costs and efficiency of the scheme for future years.