Labour MPs have agreed to support plans to transfer responsibility for buying school text- books from parents to secondary schools, giving the move a parliamentary majority.

Schools will put their book lists out to tender from the 2009-2010 academic year and the government will allocate €45m to set up a task force to assist them with the European tender process.
Parents currently spend around €300m annually on text books. Parents will get €308 towards paying for books in the 2008-2009 school year to compensate for the year delay in the government’s original plans.