Politics

Free schoolbooks for 210,000 second-level students from this autumn

Minister will bring memo to Cabinet seeking approval for scheme in non fee-paying schools

Students in the Junior Cycle years will be entitled to free books and ebooks under the scheme. Photograph: iStock

Harry McGee
Cormac McQuinn
Mon Mar 4 2024 - 20:03

Free schoolbooks will be extended to second-level students from this autumn after the Government gives formal approval to a new scheme at its meeting on Tuesday.

As many as 210,000 students in the Junior Cycle years will be entitled to free books and ebooks under the scheme being brought to Cabinet by Minister for Education Norma Foley.

Free books were introduced to the primary sector in Budget 2022. Some 558,000 pupils in primary and special schools were entitled to the scheme, which had a budget of €50 million.

In last October’s budget it was announced that the scheme would be made available to post-primary students in the Junior Certificate cycle.

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At the time of the budget, Ms Foley said the free book scheme would not be available to students at fee-paying schools.

The funding will cover the cost of schoolbooks and ebooks, as well as copybooks and other classroom resources.

Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney will bring a report to Cabinet that concludes that a raft of new measures introduced to support employees – including pay increases, better leave and statutory sick pay – have had a “negligible” impact on business costs.

However, the report has found that while the overall picture is positive, some sectors such as hospitality and retail have been affected more, experiencing cost implications as much as three times larger than those of other sectors.

The report looked at the impact of such measures as auto-enrolment pension, parents’ leave and benefit, statutory sick pay, the additional public holiday in February, the transition to a living age, and the right to request remote working.

The analysis suggests the measures had a “modest effect” in the economy as a whole with estimates of 1.8-2.2 per cent in wage costs.

The report finds that the implementation of the Living Wage is assessed to have the most significant impact on costs in the near term.

This is especially so, it has concluded, for the hospitality and retail sectors. Those two sectors are expected to experience a sharper increase in their costs.

The report has found that a small hospitality business could experience cost increases of close to 7 per cent by 2024 and 19 per cent by 2026.

Mr Coveney will tell colleagues he will target support measures to help companies in those two sectors to meet business costs.

An extra €15 million will be made available through Local Enterprise Offices to make an additional €3,000 available in the Energy Efficiency Grant for businesses in the hospitality and retail sectors.

Separately, the historic records of the Land Commission – which decided on the allotment and division of land in 1843-1999 – is to be transferred to the National Archives of Ireland.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will tell colleagues that officials in his department are in discussions with the National Archives on how to execute such a transfer. The project will take a number of years to complete, given the scale of the collection.

Former Garda assistant commissioner John Twomey will head a new group of stakeholders on dog control under plans being brought to Cabinet by Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys.

The group will examine how to strengthen legislation around the control of dogs.

Earlier this year Ms Humphreys announced a series of measures in response to dog attacks including trebling the on-the-spot fines for the most serious offences from €100 to €300; the provision of €2 million for dog warden services to upgrade the facilities and transport; and funding for a public awareness campaign.

Ms Humphreys is believed to be open to the idea of following the UK in taking specific action in relation to certain dangerous breeds, including XL Bully dogs.

Harry McGee

Harry McGee

Harry McGee is a Political Correspondent with The Irish Times

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times

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