A mother of teenage triplet boys said the start of the free schoolbooks for Junior Cycle will make a “huge difference” for families, saving parents hundreds of euro each year.
An estimated 800,000 people are set to benefit from the scheme, which takes effect this academic year, and applies to students in first, second and third year at second level education.
The Government funding covers books, ebooks and class resources.
Margaret Gaidoni, from Glasnevin, said the cost of buying school books can be “phenomenal”.
Her 13-year-old sons Alessandro, Alberto and Artero Gaidoni will be first-year students at Ardscoil Ris in north Dublin.
“I’ve another son who is going into second year, and would have bought his books last year so I know what it costs,” Margaret said.
“It’s a huge difference from buying primary school books when you buy secondary school books.
“I think I spent €400 on books last year.
“When you multiply it by three, it’s phenomenal.
“It really has made a huge difference and I think everyone is delighted, whether you have one child or three children, it’s a huge difference.
“And also having them all organised, and having all the copy books, it’s phenomenal.”
She said: “There are also times you go looking for a book and they (retailer) doesn’t have it so then you have to go off somewhere else and find them.
“The boys are also all involved in sports, and naturally pay subs for all the sports clubs.
“With them going into first year, I’m also buying new bikes as they’ve grown that much. There’s a lot of expense.
“Uniforms obviously also cost money, and additional things, like maybe a home computer, so there’s a lot of extra expense.”
The Dublin mother also welcomed suggestions that the free schoolbooks scheme could be extended to the Senior Cycle.
“Absolutely, from a financial point of view, but we should also be offering free education to everybody,” she said.
“It’s really important to keep kids in school, and money shouldn’t be in the way.”
Minister for Education Norma Foley said it was a significant day.
“We are seeing, in action, the roll-out of free book at post-primary,” the Fianna Fáil minister said.
“Almost 800,000 people are benefitting from free school books. It’s an enormous uplift to families.
“I tour the country visiting schools and meeting staff and parents and all the time they speak about the enormous burden that has been lifted from them in terms of cost of school books.”
The minister said it is also her ambition to extend the scheme to the Senior Cycle, but indicated it may not take place in October’s budget.
“I’ve never made a secret of the fact that it has always been my ambition from day one, first to introduce the free textbooks, and I was very clear that we would do it in an incremental level,” Ms Foley said.
“We take the first step in primary, we’d go then to post-primary and the first three years, and it is my absolute ambition that we’d be able to follow through in the budget.
“But I’m very conscious that there’s a number of competing demands in this budget.
“I’m also very conscious that I’ll be having a number of engagements with the ministers in relation to the budget.
“But I do think there’s a general goodwill towards this.
“There’s an absolute recognition of the positivity and the benefit for parents and guardians and for students themselves.
“I’m doing all that I can, but I can’t guarantee it until we have the business of the budget done, but it’s an absolute priority for me.”
