Education Minister: money allocated for free schoolbooks scheme will be adequate to source the necessary books for pupils

Norma Foley says the €96 per pupil is an increase on the €85 for each pupil in the scheme’s initial pilot.

The scheme aims to reduce the costs associated with sending a child to school and will cover all books, workbooks and copybooks.

Minister Foley says the funding being provided is significant:

“A 100 pupil school would have almost €10,000 available to them for schoolbooks and again, we must be clear that the needs of a child in Junior Infants would be very different to the needs of a child in sixth class. So it’s a substantial body of money: a school that has in excess of 700 pupils would have almost €70,000 available to them.”