I raise with the Tánaiste one of a number of emails I have received in the past week or so. The school informed someone's son that as he would now be going into fifth year, students would require a Chromebook when returning in September, at a cost of €540. The school commented that this is the only practical way to manage coursework due to the changes in the leaving certificate course. The school said it cannot afford the potential €80,000 expenditure to buy Chromebooks for every student. The email went on to say that this is the first year in which families would benefit from free schoolbooks, which is a fantastic initiative, but this is being eroded by the cost of €550. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission wrote to all schools, reminding them to avoid restrictive and costly uniform policies. While we are serious about free education, we are eroding the good work that has been done by Government and the Department with what is happening on the ground. Can the Tánaiste comment on that? I received a parliamentary question reply from the Minister for education, saying that she has written to all schools about the cost of Chromebooks, and it is not related to the leaving certificate. The Tánaiste might confirm something similar.

I thank Deputy Wall for engaging with the Minister for education on this. He is right that the general direction of travel that all of us in this House want to see is reducing the costs that families face when their children attend school. That is why we have had the hot school meals and the free schoolbooks. It is why we are genuinely trying to work with the CCPC and others on uniform costs. It would be extraordinarily disappointing and counterintuitive if we saw the cost of technology eroding some of that benefit to families. I share the Minister's view that there should not be a cause and effect between leaving certificate reform and the need for that technology. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will speak directly to the Minister, Deputy Naughton.