The Minister for Education announced the measure this afternoon, which includes free materials like calculators and copies.
68 million euro is being provided which will benefit 212 thousand pupils.
Minister Norma Foley's indicated she’d like to extend it further in the next budget
"That is certainly my hope and aspiration but obviously that's a budgetary consideration as well but I think we have made transformative progress here, beginning with the primary schools, we've now moved on to the Junior Cycle, and certainly it will be my hope and expectation that we could achieve at the final leg of Senior Cycle as well"
