Labour TD for Dublin Bay North, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, today welcomed Minister Ruairi Quinn’s new on the school book rental scheme.

“I welcome the Minister’s announcement today and I believe that it is a first attempt at creating a level playing pitch in our primary education sector.

“At present 20% of our primary schools have no book rental scheme. Today the Minister has committed to addressing this with an allocation of €15 million in funding geared towards those schools.

“Last June, I authored a report on ‘Tackling Back to School Costs’ for the Oireachtas Committee on Education & Social Protection, where I called for this issue to be addressed.

“Today is the first step in offering major assistance to struggling families and the funding will be directed at key areas currently without any scheme in place.

“Another recommendation of the ‘Tackling Back to School Costs’ Report was the issue of school uniform costs which is something that the Minister has also been very proactive in tackling.

“This issue will appear before the Education Committee again in the coming months where I hope to work once again with Minister Quinn and his team in aiding struggling families overcome the unnecessary burdens.

“I also look forward to working with the Minister in the coming weeks and months to evaluate the progress of the book rental scheme and its further development.”