Barnardos welcomes today’s announcement from the Minister for Education about how the additional funding secured in Budget 2020 to provide free school books will be distributed.
January 9 2020: Barnardos welcomes today’s announcement from the Minister for Education about how the additional funding secured in Budget 2020 to provide free school books will be distributed.
Suzanne Connolly, Barnardos CEO said: “Budget 2020 took the first step towards providing free primary school education for all pupils by allocating €1m for a pilot free school books scheme. While the funding falls far short of providing school books for all children, which would cost €20m, we welcome the fact that children in DEIS schools will be the first to benefit from this new initiative. However, it is important to bear in mind that many children attending non-DEIS schools may also experience disadvantage therefore future allocations of funding must recognise this reality.
“Barnardos has been calling on the government to introduce truly free education for well over a decade. It is clear from our annual school costs survey that parents are stressed out, overburdened and fed up of subsidising our so called ‘free education’ system”. Providing free school books for all primary school pupils is the first step towards the realisation of the constitutional right to free education. We look forward to seeing the plans to evaluate this initial pilot in order to inform the allocation of increased funding in subsequent budgets.”
ENDS
Notes to editor:
Minister McHugh announces additional funding of €1 million to reduce the cost of school books in DEIS schools –https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2020-press-releases/PR20-01-09.html
For further information, please contact:
Barnardos Press Office: 01 7080442 / 086 0445966
Rachel Boyce; 01 7080443
Trudy McCarthy; 01 7080423